Tag: warning labels

  • Supreme Court Won’t Hear Graphic Warning Challenge

    Supreme Court Won’t Hear Graphic Warning Challenge

    The U.S. Supreme Court won’t hear a challenge to a federal requirement that cigarette packages and advertising include graphic images demonstrating the effects of smoking.

    The nation’s top court declined to hear the case in a brief written order handed down Monday.

    R.J. Reynolds appealed to the high court after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the warnings do not violate the First Amendment, the AP reports.

    They include pictures of smoke-damaged lungs, feet blackened by diminished blood flow and a picture of a woman with an immense growth on her neck and the caption “WARNING: Smoking causes head and neck cancer.”

    Nearly 120 countries worldwide have adopted more prominent, graphic warning labels. Studies from those countries suggest that image-based labels are more effective than text warnings at publicizing smoking risks and encouraging smokers to quit. The U.S. has not updated its labels since 1984.

    It’s not clear when new labels might appear. Some legal claims remain, and the FDA has said it doesn’t plan to enforce any new requirements until at least December 2025.

  • Supreme Court declines to hear cigarette label case

    The legality of placing graphic warnings on cigarette packages appears to have been settled when the U.S. Supreme Court declined today to hear an appeal on the labels from a group of tobacco manufacturers, according to a story in the Winston-Salem Journal.

    However, it remains unclear what the warning labels will look like or when they will debut.

    A federal appeals court in Cincinnati ruled in March 2012 to uphold parts of the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which restricts how tobacco products may be marketed. The FDA’s labels would cover the top half of cigarette packs.

    The manufacturers, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Inc., petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court in October to review that case. Reynolds did not have immediate comment today on the decision.

    The nine labels – which include images of dead bodies, diseased lungs and gums, and cigarette smoke drifting around an infant — were chosen by the FDA in June 2011. The labels had been slated to debut last September.