Feds may go for the grisly in new anti-smoking effort

Taking a page from a successful New York City campaign, federal health officials are considering whether grisly new images on cigarette packs will help people kick the smoking habit.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Wednesday unveiled 36 images - among them a corpse lying in a coffin and a set of brown, disfigured teeth grimacing over a cancerous lip - that are under consideration for tobacco products starting Sept. 22, 2012.

The graphic images are to consume half the package - essentially as much space as the brand name. In addition to cigarette packs, the same images will appear on advertisements in any venue where the products are sold.

"When the rule takes effect, the health consequences of smoking will be obvious every time someone picks up a pack of cigarettes," said FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg.

Starting Friday, anyone can comment on the strategy by logging onto regulations.gov. Public comment will be accepted through Jan. 9, 2011.

After a review of the relevant scientific literature, public comments and results of an 18,000-person study, the FDA will select nine images and warning statements on June 22. It is the first major change to cigarette packaging in a quarter-century after Congress last year voted in favor of a tougher way to dissuade smoking.

The strategy, being cheered on Long Island and elsewhere in the region, is a new twist on a similar effort using strong graphics that has helped lower New York's smoking rates, experts said Wednesday.

"This approach will be very effective," said Patricia Folan, director of the Center for Tobacco Control at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Manhasset. "The other warning is too small and people ignore it," Folan said of the decades-old statement that now appears on cigarette packs.

Dr. Maria Torroella Carney, Nassau's health commissioner, said graphic images of smoking's consequences can be persuasive.

"This is a good additional strategy that may help tobacco users quit and prevent children from starting. I like the fact that the public will have the opportunity to comment on the 36 proposed images," she said.

Dr. James Tomarken, Suffolk's health commissioner, said hard-hitting graphics work well in combination with other smoking-cessation strategies.

"We support a comprehensive effort that includes the use of graphic warning labels," he said.

Other countries have used hard-hitting graphics on tobacco products, but with mixed results.

However, New York City and state health officials say using graphic images works. City health officials estimate a fourfold jump in calls to the 311 help line whenever its TV public service announcements aired. Statewide, public service announcements are credited in recent years with helping lower New York's adult smoking rate from 25 percent to 17.9 percent in 2009.

"The emphasis on plaque oozing from arteries made people sit up and notice, and that's one reason New York's smoking rate has taken a nosedive in recent years," said Peter Slocum, vice president for advocacy at the American Cancer Society. "The evidence from the television ads, which have been quite graphic, strongly suggest that kind of message gets across to people."