The New Image of Tobacco Smoking

Extract

The old adage that “a picture is worth a thousand words” seems to have been on the minds of U.S. health officials, who mandated graphic warning labels on all cigarette packs sold in the U.S. after September 22, 2012.

In 1966, the U.S. became the first country to mandate warning labels on cigarettes. Since that first warning , “Caution: Cigarette Smoking May be Hazardous to Your Health,” many other countries began their own bold initiatives, leapfrogging the U.S. with graphic antismoking warnings on packs sold in their countries. ( See sidebar.)

The new labels, which are the first change in messaging about U.S. tobacco dangers in nearly a quarter-century, will include graphic images and warning text messages covering the upper half of both the front and back of cigarette packs. They will replace the small, text-only messages that (because their location was left up to the tobacco companies) were typically tucked away in small type on the sides of the packs.