FDA Creates New Warning Labels

By 2013, every person who buys a pack of cigarettes will get a very real reminder of exactly what sort of risk they take every time they smoke. This is because the FDA just released images of the new warning labels that will be required on every pack of cigarettes within 2 years.

The FDA whittled down their list of 36 potential warnings to the final 9 and recently published photos of those warnings. Unlike previous, small, text-only warnings these new labels are required to take up at least 50% of the pack’s space, making the warning a completely unavoidable point of focus. The FDA believes this will help increase desire to quit but they also admit that desire and actual quitting can be two very different things. However, being that smoking is still the #1 most preventable cause of death in the world, the hope is that the new warning labels will take a step in the proper direction; elimination of smoking.

Although the new labels will undoubtedly incur some opposition from smoking lobbyists and (dare I say it) smoking fans, keep in mind that this is still a tame approach compared to other countries. In Australia, for example, plans are currently being made to strip cigarette packs of any and all branding entirely. Every brand would come in the same plain packaging with only the brand name printed on it alongside a large warning.

The new warnings are expected to increase the number of quitters but the FDA does admit that the most effective method of getting people to stop buying cigarettes is to raise prices even more – an approach that FDA is currently working on.