U.S. court strikes down graphic warnings on cigarettes

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

By David Ingram and Anna Yukhananov
WASHINGTON | Fri Aug 24, 2012 12:33pm EDT

(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday struck down a law that requires tobacco companies to use graphic health warnings, such as of a man exhaling smoke through a hole in his throat.

The 2-1 decision by the court in Washington, D.C., contradicts another appeals court's ruling in a similar case earlier this year, setting up the possibility the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on the dispute.

The court's majority in the latest ruling found the label requirement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration violated corporate speech rights.

"This case raises novel questions about the scope of the government's authority to force the manufacturer of a product to go beyond making purely factual and accurate commercial disclosures and undermine its own economic interest -- in this case, by making 'every single pack of cigarettes in the country mini billboard' for the government's anti-smoking message," wrote Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/24/us-usa-cigarettes-labels-idUSBRE87N0NL20120824

[onehandle]

1. The world moves forward, we move backward. nt

[cyclezealot]

3. Mitt Philosophy: Corporations are people..

If there are no health warnings, then tobacco CEO's should be put on trial for premeditated murder.

[Suziq]

7. There Are Already Health Warnings n/t

[Suziq]

4. No - We Harass Smokers

By imposing ridiculous prices via taxes and higher medical insurance premiums (yep - I pay more as a smoker). Do you pay more for indulging in your brand of risky behavior?

It is LEGAL! I am well aware of the dangers without the graphics.

[Spider Jerusalem]

9. Don't talk about "ridiculous prices"

A packet of 20 Marlboro is about US$12 here in the UK; it's about $15 in Australia. The US has lower prices for tobacco products than most of the rest of the world, even with higher prices due to taxation over the past decade.

[Carolina]

35. it's not about you!

it's about preventing young people from picking up the nasty, health destroying habit. And that habit is a public health menace because of the myriad dangers of second hand smoke. Cigarette smoking causes >400,000 deaths/year. They have no redeeming value

The print warnings were insufficient, hence the graphics since people generally respond to GRAPHIC images.

The it's legal emphasis is weak. Alcohol is legal, too; guns are legal, too... but I would love some graphic ads showing people the health and safety ravages of both.

[NutmegYankee]

39. Alcohol isn't dangerous when used correctly.

It's misuse that causes problems. Smoking on the other hand will hurt or kill you when used correctly.

I'm German-American and festive social use of wine and beer are part of my cultural heritage. I detest the prohibitionist movement which used anti-German hate in the nineteen teens to help their movement and destroy our cultural heritage in the US. It would be obscene to put graphic ads on a bottle of wine.

[DeSwiss]

14. Exactly.

- K&R

[Mojorabbit]

21. This photo is why I have a problem with it

This does not happen to most smokers and when you are trying to prevent young people from starting it is bad to exaggerate as they only have to look around and see most smokers do not have mouths like this. I quit years three years ago and it is a horrible habit but these photos may do more harm than good. They certainly would not have made me quit. JMO

[DeSwiss]

30. After developing devastating health consequences.....

...I too quit smoking on January 31, 2009, - that was the day I went into the hospital for surgery to correct 40 years of smoking's damage. And while there to get that fixed, they found more goodies -- also linked to smoking.

Yet I would rather endure a lifetime of ugly tobacco disease pictures than to risk even one person going through what I have. Not to mention what others have gone through that is much worse. I wish now these kinds of pics had been around when I was a kid watching John Cameron Swazey's Old Golds wafting smoke on his news desk or Johnny Carson taking a puff as they came back from commercials. They made it all seem so right and normal.

Tobacco has few positives and while we can explain much of this continued smoking behavior on the past lack of understanding -- particularly since we were lied to so thoroughly and by doctors no less -- we now know that disease and heartache is the potential future for smokers who ignore these warnings. Not to mention the widows and children left behind in smoking's wake.

Are these pics over-the-top? Yes. That's what it'll take to try to undo the normalization of swallowing smoke into our lungs. And if we believe that the government has a responsibility to provide healthcare for all Americans in order to protect their health, then I think these picture warnings are part and parcel with that goal.

IMHO

[4th law of robotics]

22. Is there a single person in the US who is not already aware that smoking is bad for them?

If they missed the PSAs on the radio, TV, magazines, the popular representation of smoking in movies, the warning labels already on the cigarettes, the numerous health seminars they were forced to go to while in school and ultimately the warnings from helpful strangers every time they light up in public (those cause cancer dontchaknow!) then I doubt one more label would get through to them.

[onehandle]

25. Children. They are the official unofficial targets of Big Tobacco.

School? Kids do the opposite.

They need refreshers. Constantly.

[4th law of robotics]

38. And kids are thoroughly motivated by longterm consequences

that's all they care about really. What will happen to me 60 years from now?

[slackmaster]

2. Meanwhile, the federal gov't is giving almost $200 million of OUR MONEY annually to tobacco farmers

http://farm.ewg.org/progdetail.php?fips=00000&progcode=tobacco

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. Tobacco products here in the UK feature large and graphic warnings.

About 20% of the population still smoke.

[TrogL]

11. Canada has them, Australia's working on it

[alarimer]

28. You'd think that one on the bottom left would be enough for most guys to quit

Never mind the other risks. People are terrible at assessing risk. They think flying is more dangerous than driving to the airport, when driving is far riskier in general.

[former9thward]

33. They know it is BS

They know smoking does not give them ED. Scores of millions smoke and they are having sex just fine. Most ED is age related and someone tries to blame smoking. Nonsense.

[Exultant Democracy]

40. Vasoconstrictors lead to ED it isn't rocket science.

[former9thward]

41. If it was as simple as that scores of millions of smokers would not be having sex.

And they are. People/groups with agendas try to tie age related aliments with smoking without evidence.

[Exultant Democracy]

42. That is like saying smoking doesn't age your skin, because it's age related

ED has multiple risk factors, your argument is absurd.

[former9thward]

44. You have an agenda so evidence doesn't matter to you.

You will pick out any ailment and somehow tie it to smoking no matter how tenuous.

[valerief]

6. A bought-and-paid-for court system. nt

[ailsagirl]

26. yep. Not very pretty, is it

[former9thward]

34. The people attempting to have these graphics have far more money than Big Tobacco.

The federal government has unlimited resources to use in court cases. Nothing was "bought and paid for". It is something called the First Amendment which many people hate if it is used for something they don't like.

[CountAllVotes]

8. More graphics/ads are needed IMO

Maybe some of these smokers out there might quit if they saw a machine pumping blood out of someone's lungs that has cancer from smoking perhaps?

What I hate is that a huge segment of the population of the entire world has gotten hooked on tobacco and they cannot quit.

They all die eventually of course, but smoking will make it faster and far more furious.

[xtraxritical]

19. I quit, and it's not that hard...

Drink hard liquor until you pass out every day for about a week, smoke your ass off while you're getting drunk. When you can't stand it anymore throw out all your booze and tobacco. For about the next three days you will shake, and puke and you won't know if you want a cigarette or a drink but you'll be too sick for either. By the fourth day you will be a nonsmoker nondrinker and you will never go back after that experience! Seriously, it works.

[xocet]

10. Reuters did not link to the USCA-DC opinion as a reference...

Here is the opinion:

www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/4C0311C78EB11C5785257A64004EBFB5/$file/11-5332-1391191.pdf

[ZombieHorde]

12. I'm happy about this. Are we going to put graphic warnings on cars, booze, prescriptions, etc.?

It's silly.

Unrelated side note: Cute snip. Small, yet bold.

[alp227]

17. Can't compare any of those.

When cigarettes are used as directed, people actually get ill or die.

When cars are used as directed, they do NOT cause accidents.

[ZombieHorde]

18. Actually, cars do cause accidents when used as directed.

I don't care how well you can drive, a patch of black ice can send you spinning.

[muriel_volestrangler]

32. Fatalities from unavoidable car accidents are very rare

Fatalities from smoking are everyday occurrences.

[Carolina]

36. cigarettes have no redeeming value

they smell, they pollute, they kill in myriad ways, often by first impacting quality of life (e.g. emphysema) and they threaten public health. The other items you cited, especially cars and prescription drugs, are designed for transportation and to cure disease, eliminate pain, etc. That people abuse them -- sometimes in deadly ways -- is another matter. And BTW some drugs already have blackbox warnings.

I thought the ads were great for young people and, as an MD, I was glad the FDA SHOWED the truth. But of course, money and corporations won out... as always.

[ZombieHorde]

37. Nothing really has redeeming value because all value is subjective.

Value comes from our imagination, and does not exist outside of our imagination. All value is imaginary.

[primavera]

43. I suspect that they are a cash cow for government

If taxes from cigarettes were used to cover the increased health care costs incurred by smoking, I would say that's terrific. But it doesn't seem to work that way. Tobacco tax revenues simply go into general slush funds to be used for whatever pet project some legislator wants to fund. Because smoking is an indefensible practice, raising taxes on it becomes a quick and easy way to raise revenues because, after all, it's only smokers who will have to pay and who cares what they think? Everybody hates them anyway. Again, I am all in favor of personal responsibility and, insofar as tobacco results in increased social costs, it's absolutely appropriate that such costs should be born by those who contribute to the problems. But I disagree with the prevailing attitude that smokers should shoulder the burden of paying for schools, roads, police, etc., things that benefit everyone but no one ever actually wants to pay for themselves.

[benld74]

13. This judge brought to you by our friendly Resident W!

Female Clarence Thomas she is,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

[Swede Atlanta]

15. There we go again..."corporate" free speech rights.....

Now that we have a corporatist government, corporate interests will always be placed ahead of those of actual living humans because as Mittens has pronounced, "corporations are people too".

This is the sick logic we have come to. What a difference an ocean makes. The Australian High Court recently upheld a new law that not only requires large graphics and photos of the ravages of smoking on cigarette packages but defines the branding. All cigarettes must be sold in plain white packaging with black text. The company identity is in the same place in simple black text regardless of the company whose cigarettes they are.

While I might think that is a good idea, that might be a little too far in the other direction. But one thing is certain in this country the corporations have won by buying the Supreme Court and our elected officials.

[Vincardog]

20. "corporate speech rights" are an unconstitutional legal farce foisted upon us by a corrupt court.

It is the germ from which the death of our Democracy has grown.

[4th law of robotics]

23. Were there not already enough warnings that cigarettes may cause health problems?

I challenge you to find one person who isn't fully aware of the risks already.

We may as well require store owners to look at anyone who buys cigarettes in disgust then suckerpunch them in the gut. As they're wheezing for breath they could get a lecture on how they're killing themselves and maybe the other store patrons could be required to spit on them.

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. Don't like this trend..."corporate speech rights."

But try to sue a corporation for massive pollution of air/water and see what happens.

[WooWooWoo]

24. good

It's not like anyone over the age of, say 10, doesn't realize cigarettes are bad for you.

I'd have less of a problem with making cigarettes illegal than with forcing manufacturers to put completely ridiculous pictures showing the side effects of their products.

Might as well show someone the picture of a coronary bypass on every McDonalds bag or pictures of skin cancer on a tanning booth.

[MrSlayer]

27. It's a dumb idea.

Everyone knows smoking is bad for you. Why not put pictures of accident victims on liquor bottles or pictures of heart disease on butter packages?

It's stupid.

[Ruby the Liberal]

29. Corporate "free speech"?

That is a mortifying concept, regardless of the topic.

[MercutioATC]

31. When do we get graphic images on HFCS...or white flour...or alcohol...

...or beach vacation pamphlets...or any number of other things that we do that are harmful?

It's overreaching and stupid.

Stop passing laws to protect me from myself.

[jmowreader]

45. I know an anti-smoking picture that would WORK to dissuade kids from smoking

Imagine a cold, gray, shitty day. It's raining hard. And right in the middle of it are an ugly man and an ugly woman, soaked to the bone, freezing their asses off while sucking on cigarettes.

The caption: "Cigarettes are addictive and you can't smoke indoors anymore. If you choose to smoke, this will be YOU."