FDA requires new color, graphic and text warnings on cigarettes starting in June 2021; cigarette makers expected to challenge it

CNN graphic using six of the 11 new Food and Drug Administration warnings

By Melissa Patrick
Kentucky Health News

Beginning in about 15 months, graphic warnings about the dangers of cigarettes and secondhand smoke must be displayed prominently on both cigarette packages and in cigarette advertising, says the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The FDA says the 11 new warnings, which will include text and realistic color images depicting some of the lesser-known health risks of smoking, must fill the top half of cigarette packages on both front and back and at least 20 percent of the area at the top of ads. These warnings haven't been updated since 1984.

"It's time these graphics, which the tobacco industry has delayed time and again with self-interested legal wrangling, replace the 35-year old warnings that we've all gone blind to seeing on cigarettes," said Ben Chandler, president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, which advocates measures to reduce Kentucky's still widespread use of tobacco.

The American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association, the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and Truth Initiative released a statement praising the new warnings, saying they say are supported by extensive scientific evidence. They also called on the FDA to defend its move, which is likely to be challenged.

Kaelan Hollon, a spokesperson for Reynolds American Inc., parent company of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in the United States, told CNN in an email:  "We firmly support public awareness of the harms of smoking cigarettes, but the manner in which those messages are delivered to the public should comply with First Amendment protections that apply to all speakers, including cigarette manufacturers."

The 11 new warnings say "Tobacco smoke can harm your children; Tobacco smoke causes fatal lung disease in nonsmokers;  Smoking causes head and neck cancer; Smoking causes bladder cancer, which can lead to bloody urine; Smoking during pregnancy stunts fetal growth; Smoking can cause heart disease and strokes by clogging arteries; Smoking causes COPD, a lung disease that can be fatal; Smoking reduces blood flow,which can cause erectile dysfunction; Smoking reduces blood flow to the limbs, which can require amputation; Smoking causes type 2 diabetes, which raises blood sugar;" and "Smoking causes cataracts, which can lead to blindness."

"Smoking kills nearly 9,000 Kentuckians every single year," Chandler said. "We're particularly concerned about adolescents and teens who have started vaping in droves recently and, research shows, are much more likely to move to cigarettes. Even another 15 months is too long to wait, so I encourage health advocates, parents, educators and others to start sharing these graphics now. The new warnings may not appear until June 2021, but it's a fact now: smoking kills and causes tremendous damage to our quality of life."