Graphic images mandated on cigarette packs

Grisly images that convey the dangers of smoking -- from disease-riddled lungs and rotting teeth to a corpse with stitches on its chest -- will be required on cigarette packaging and advertising by September 2012, federal officials said Tuesday.

The Food and Drug Administration released nine graphic warning labels that are to consume 50 percent of the front and back of every pack. The images include messages like "Smoking can kill you," "Cigarettes are addictive," and "Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease."

As part of a push to convince the nation's 46 million smokers to quit and to stop youngsters from starting, the new warnings are required under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act approved by Congress in 2009.

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said the images, which will also appear on cigarette cartons, are true depictions of the risks smokers face. The nine images were chosen from an original group of 36.

"The Tobacco Control Act requires FDA to provide current and potential smokers with clear and truthful information about the risks of smoking," Hamburg said. "These warnings do that."

Cigarette makers have to run all nine of the warning labels on a rotating basis, federal officials said.

Patricia Folan, director of the Center for Tobacco Control at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System in Manhasset, applauded the move, saying the images may help convince some people to kick the habit.

But Folan said even the starkest images won't deter some hard-core smokers.

"There have been some very graphic [television] commercials about quitting smoking. Among the 6,000 patients we have had come through our program, some have said they just change the channel," she said.

Lorillard Inc., Reynolds American Inc. and other cigarette makers sued the FDA two years ago, arguing the graphic images violated their constitutional right to free speech.

"We're reviewing the regulation now, so I don't have a comment beyond our filing," said Steve Callahan, spokesman for Lorillard, makers of Kent, Newport and Old Gold cigarette brands.

Dr. Jonathan Whiteson, director of the cardiac and pulmonary wellness program at NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan, questioned whether the warning labels would lose their value over time.

"The fear factor of the negative message can lose its potency, causing some people to become immune to the negative image over time," he said.

If the images are too graphic, he added, some smokers might "hide behind the denial wall, stating this just can't possibly happen to me."

The U.S. first mandated the use of warning labels in 1965. The current labels, a small box with black-and-white text, were put on cigarette packs in the mid-1980s.