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      RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Corpses, cancer patients and diseased
lungs: These are some of the images the federal government plans
for larger, graphic warning labels for cigarette packages.

 (WARNING: Contains some graphic images) are part of a new push announced by the Food and Drug
Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services on
Wednesday to reduce tobacco use, which is responsible for about
443,000 deaths per year.


      The number of Americans who smoke has fallen dramatically over
the past 40 years, but those declines have stalled recently. About
46 million adults in the U.S., or 20.6 percent, smoke cigarettes,
along with 19.5 percent of high school students.


      The new prevention plan is part of the law passed in June 2009
giving the FDA authority to regulate tobacco, including marketing
and labeling guidelines, banning certain products and limiting
nicotine. The law doesn't let the FDA ban nicotine or tobacco
entirely.


      "Today, FDA takes a crucial step toward reducing the tremendous
toll of illness and death caused by tobacco use by proposing to
dramatically change how cigarette packages and advertising look in
this country," FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in a news
release. "The health consequences of smoking will be obvious every
time someone picks up a pack of cigarettes."


      The FDA is proposing 36 labels for public comment, which include
phrases like "smoking can kill you" and "cigarettes cause
cancer," but also feature graphic images to convey the dangers of
tobacco use.


      The agency will select the final labels in June after reviews of
scientific literature, public comments, and results from an
18,000-person study. Cigarette makers will then have 15 months to
start using the new labels.


      The new warning labels are to take up half of a pack - both
front and back - of cigarettes and contain "color graphics
depicting the negative health consequences." Warning labels also
must constitute 20 percent of advertisements.


      "It acts as a very public billboard because you all of the
sudden are reading something about lung cancer from that pack
behind the cash register, whereas before you were just reading
Marlboro," said David Hammond, a health behavior researcher at the
University of Waterloo in Canada, who is working with the firm
designing the labels with for the FDA.


      In recent years, several countries have introduced labels
similar to those proposed by the FDA.


      While it is impossible to say how many people quit because of
the labels that have been introduced in several countries, Hammond
said every source of evidence suggests that the labels do help
people quit.


      Given the population in the U.S., the impact of the warning
labels could be "significant," Hammond said.

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Health

The federal government is unveiling a new
plan to snuff out tobacco use, including new larger, graphic
warning labels for cigarettes that include images of corpses,
cancer patients, and diseased lungs and teeth.

Feds propose graphic cigarette warning labels

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