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Tag: Graphic Health Warnings

  • Graphic Warnings Date Postponed Again

    Graphic Warnings Date Postponed Again

    Image: FDA

    The implementation date for graphic health warnings in the United States has been pushed back by another three months, to Oct. 6, 2023, reports the Winston-Salem Journal.

    On Aug. 10, a U.S. District Court Judge in Texas approved the most recent launch date postponement for cigarette manufacturers. It is at least the ninth judge-ordered delay.

    The FDA released its final rule requiring new graphic warnings for cigarettes in March 2020. The rule calls for labels that feature some of the lesser known health risks of smoking, such as diabetes. The graphic warnings must cover the top 50 percent of the front and rear panels of packages as well as at least 20 percent of the top of advertisements.

    In April and May 2020, cigarette manufacturers and retailers sued the FDA, arguing that the graphic warning requirements amount to governmental anti-smoking advocacy because the government has never forced makers of a legal product to use their own advertising to spread an emotionally charged message urging adults not to use their products.

    In a more recent challenge, tobacco companies argued that the deadline was too onerous due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. They also pointed to the risk that they would lose their investments in new packaging if the graphic health warning requirement were to be thrown out in court.

    In March 2021, the Texas District Court granted a motion by the plaintiffs to postpone the effective date of the final rule to April 14, 2022. The move was followed by additional postponements.

  • New Tobacco Health Warnings in India

    New Tobacco Health Warnings in India

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    Tobacco manufacturers selling in India will have to print a new health warning on their products starting Dec. 1, reports Mint.

    The Union Health Ministry has specified two sets of warning messages and images to be used on both sides of the pack. The first, “Tobacco causes painful death,” must be printed with an image on one side of a pack, and the message “Tobacco users die young” must be displayed with an image on the other side of a pack.

    The packs must also display a toll-free helpline for smokers wishing to quit.

    Health activists welcomed the new warnings.

    “It’s a proven fact that the lives of tobacco users are shortened by up to 10 years as compared to nontobacco users,” said S.K. Arora, medical superintendent of the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Hospital and renowned tobacco control expert. “The warnings play a significant role in helping tobacco users quit the habit.”

    In the second round of the Global Adult Tobacco Survey, 61.9 percent of cigarette smokers, 53.8 percent of bidi smokers and 46.2 percent of smokeless tobacco users were considering quitting due to the warning label on packets. The number is significantly higher compared to the 2009–2010 figures.

    According to government data, tobacco use causes more than 1.3 million deaths every year

  • Study: Graphic Warnings Boost Pack Hiding

    Study: Graphic Warnings Boost Pack Hiding

    Illustration: FDA

    The presence of graphic health warnings encouraged smokers to hide their packs but did not change smoking behavior among participants in a recent study published in Jama Network Open.

    As part of their tobacco-control policies, many countries require cigarette manufacturers to print images of smoking-related diseases on their cigarette packs. A similar rule is pending in the U.S., but the measure has been repeatedly postponed due to industry litigation and the Covid-19 pandemic.

    A group of public health experts at the University of California in San Diego wanted to find out how graphic health warnings would affect the behavior of U.S. smokers.

    They asked smokers to purchase their preferred brand of cigarettes from a study website. Participants were randomized to receive their cigarettes in one of three pack designs: a package with a graphic warning label, with a blank pack, or in a standard commercially available U.S. pack. Approximately 19,000 packs were delivered to participants.

    The researchers found that smokers given packets stamped with images of diseased feet, ill children and throat cancer continued to puff on about 10 cigarettes daily up to a year after receiving them. But six in ten admitted to concealing the packets at least some of the time due to the images, which was up 40 percent from before the study began.

    More than 120 countries already force tobacco companies to put warnings over the side-effects of smoking on their packets.

    But a growing body of studies suggest that the warnings are becoming less effective as smokers are becoming too used to them.

    One paper from 2019 found that about 36 percent of smokers in Canada—which has had graphic health warnings for many years—found them “not at all” or “minimally” effective in prompting them to quit.

  • Cigarette Health Warnings Effective Date Postponed Again

    Cigarette Health Warnings Effective Date Postponed Again

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter Archive

    On May 10, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued an order in the case of R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. et al. v. United States Food and Drug Administration et al., No. 6:20-cv-00176 to postpone the effective date of the “Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements” final rule.

    The new effective date of the final rule is July 8, 2023. Pursuant to the court order, any obligation to comply with a deadline tied to the effective date is similarly postponed. For example, the FDA strongly encourages entities to submit cigarette plans as soon as possible but no later than Sept. 8, 2022.

    This is not the first time the new health warnings have been delayed. The rule was most recently delayed to April 9, 2023, after being postponed multiple times before this over the past few years. The rule was originally supposed to go into effect in 2021.

    Additional details on the rule, as well as the new effective date and recommended date for submission of cigarette plans, can be found on the FDA’s website.

  • Thailand: New Graphic Health Warnings

    Thailand: New Graphic Health Warnings

    Photo: kikujungboy

    Retailers and wholesalers in Thailand will have to sell cigarette packs with newly designed warning labels beginning April 11, reports The Bangkok Post.

    The new packs must have text warnings and newly designed pictorial warnings showing graphic details of the consequences of smoking, according to Khachornsak Kaewcharas, deputy director-general of the Department of Disease Control.

    “Violators who still sell cigarette packets with the old pictorial warnings are liable to a fine of no more than THB40,000 [$1,197],” he said.

  • Graphic Health Warnings Postponed Again

    Graphic Health Warnings Postponed Again

    Image: FDA

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has postponed the effective date of its “Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements” final rule to April 9, 2023, following a Feb. 10, 2022, ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

    The move marks at least the fifth delay for graphic warning health warnings in the United States when counting previously set launch dates of June 18, 2021, Oct. 16, 2021, Jan. 14, 2022, April 14, 2022, and July 13, 2022.

    The FDA released its final rule requiring new graphic warnings for cigarettes in March 2020. The rule calls for labels that feature some of the lesser known health risks of smoking, such as diabetes. The graphic warnings must cover the top 50 percent of the front and rear panels of packages as well as at least 20 percent of the top of advertisements.

    In April and May 2020, cigarette manufacturers and retailers sued the FDA, arguing that the graphic warning requirements amount to governmental anti-smoking advocacy because the government has never forced makers of a legal product to use their own advertising to spread an emotionally charged message urging adults not to use their products.

    In a more recent challenge, tobacco companies argued that the deadline was too onerous due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. They also pointed to the risk that they would lose their investments in new packaging if the graphic health warning requirement were to be thrown out in court.

    In March 2021, the Texas District Court granted a motion by the plaintiffs to postpone the effective date of the final rule to April 14, 2022. The move was followed by additional postponements.

    This is the FDA’s second attempt to enact graphic health warnings under the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act. The first rule was struck down by the federal court in the District of Columbia as a violation of the First Amendment.

    Pursuant to the Feb. 10, 2022, court order, any obligation to comply with a deadline tied to the effective date is similarly postponed. The FDA encourages entities to submit cigarette plans as soon as possible, and in any event by June 10, 2022.