Cigarette Warning LabelsTop of Mind with Julie Rose • Season 1, Episode 252, Segment 3
Mar 14, 2016 • 13m
Guest: Nicole LaVoie, Doctoral Student at the University of Illinois
Remember how several years ago the Food and Drug Administration decided to start requiring graphic images on cigarette packages to up-the-ante on the warning label? One of the approved images was a mouth riddled with cancer missing teeth and part of the lip. Another showed a man smoking through a hole in his trachea with the words, “Warning: Cigarettes are addictive.”
Well, tobacco companies sued and a court ruled the graphic warnings violated the company’s constitution right to free speech. That case is still tied up in appeals.
But in the meantime, a University of Illinois study found the more intense warnings may not do much to deter smoking.