COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE: WASHINGTON (CN) - The nation's biggest tobacco companies are smoking hot at a new FDA rule that will force them to put graphic images - such as a dead body on an autopsy table and diseased body parts - on cigarette boxes and ads. Big Tobacco says such forced speech is unconstitutional.
"Such 'warnings' are unprecedented," the companies say in their federal complaint. "Never before in the United States have producers of a lawful product been required to use their own packaging and advertising to convey an emotionally charged government message urging adult consumers to shun their products."
The five plaintiffs include R.J. Reynolds, Lorillard, and the Liggett Group. They sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
The rule, which falls under the Tobacco Control Act, will take effect Oct. 22, 2012. It will require all cigarette packages made, starting a month before the deadline, to display the new text and graphic warnings, which must take up 50 percent of the front and back panels of a cigarette box and the top 20 percent of cigarette ads, according to the complaint.
The warnings must contain messages, such as "cigarettes cause cancer" and "smoking can kill you," as well as "color graphics depicting the negative health consequences of smoking."
The tobacco companies say the proposed images are not based upon facts. » | Ryan Abbott | Friday, August 19, 2011
