Tuesday, June 21, 2011

They Are Here

You may recall my giving you an overview of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009. There are  a few posts where I talk about it and they can be accessed here. The changes in tobacco laws as regulated by the FDA were to take place in stages.  The first change was the banning of flavored cigarettes, excluding menthol.  The next step was the change in the warning labels - with smokeless tobacco packages first rolling out three rotating messages that had to take up 30% of the pack.
You may recall that the law also called for a change in the cigarette warning labels - such that they were to take up 50% of the pack, on the top half and be graphic.

Many news sources released stories today to report that the label design has been chosen and the cigarette packs should start bearing these new warnings in 2012.  I remember telling my classes that it might take two or more years, so there you go.  
Take a look at some of the images here.  We have found that the most effective anti tobacco campaigns include real people discussing a health threat in a serious manner.  These labels are based on that evidence.

No comments: