Is 2012 your year to quit tobacco use? The risks of tobacco use and the benefits of quitting are well known. Tobacco use can harm almost every organ in the body, but once you quit the body starts to recover. Quitting is difficult, and smokers often have to try multiple times before they succeed for good. The State of North Carolina and other organizations currently have some helpful resources available for people who are ready to quit. Click to read more about these resources!
An example of the new cigarette package warnings
Would a warning about the risks of tobacco use featuring a photo of a mouth, with teeth, gums, and lips diseased from prolonged tobacco use, make you think twice about lighting up a cigarette? Well, as of 2010, 30 countries required that cigarette packages display large warnings with pictures, and by the fall of 2012, that will be the case in the United States, too.
Last month, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released the graphic images and warnings which will soon cover half of the front and back of every cigarette package. These changes will be the first to US cigarette warnings in 25 years. The World Health Organization recommends the use of these kinds of prominent pictorial warnings, because studies have shown they do a better job than text- only warnings of communicating the health risks of smoking. The pictures also tend to bring up more emotions in those who see them. By communicating the risks better and causing a deeper emotional reaction, warnings with pictures cause people to think more about quitting, and they help motivate people to quit.
Requiring pictorial warnings on cigarette packaging is one of the World Health Organization’s “best buys” strategies for reducing tobacco use because it is not particularly costly for public health organizations to put in place and research has shown that it is effective. The FDA expects that this change to tobacco labeling will have a significant impact on the health of the American public, especially in conjunction with other efforts nationwide to curb tobacco use such as expanding services to help people quit, raising prices on tobacco products and putting in place more tobacco-free policies and laws.
To take a look at all of the FDA’s new warnings, click through the slideshow at: http://www.fda.gov/TobaccoProducts/Labeling/CigaretteWarningLabels/default.htm
To view cigarette package warning labels from other countries, click through the slideshow at: http://www.good.is/post/a-tour-of-cigarette-warning-labels-from-around-the-world/
***Please be warned that some of the images used are quite graphic in their depictions of the risks of smoking cigarettes.***
What do you think about the new warnings or other countries’ approaches to tobacco warning labels? Leave a comment!