Washington: After decades of reminding people about the dangers of cigarettes, offering nicotine gum or patches and making smokers huddle outside, the government is turning to gruesome pictures.
Federal health officials on Wednesday unveiled plans to replace the warnings cigarette packs began carrying 25 years ago with new versions using images that could include emaciated cancer patients, diseased organs and corpses.
Public health authorities and anti-smoking advocates hailed the move as a milestone in the battle against tobacco in the United States that began in 1964 when the surgeon general first declared cigarettes a public health threat.
Stubborn smokers
That battle made steady progress for decades, but has been stymied in recent years, with a stubborn one in five of adults and teens still smoking.
Tobacco remains the leading cause of premature and preventable death in the country, causing 443,000 deaths each year and about one-third of all cancer deaths.
Armed with new powers approved by Congress last year, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing warnings that include one containing an image of a man smoking through a tracheotomy hole in his throat; another depicting a body with a large scar running down the chest; and another showing a man who appears to be suffering a heart attack.
Public comment
Others have images of a corpse in a coffin and one with a toe tag in a morgue, diseased lungs and mouths and a mother blowing smoke into a baby's face.
The new warnings will cover half the front and back of each pack and 20 per cent of each large ad. The FDA will gather public comment on 36 proposed images until January 9 and select nine by June 22.
Beginning October 22, 2012, any cigarette makers that do not put the new warnings on their packaging will not be allowed to sell their brands in the United States.
