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Cigarette Warning Labels to be Introduced

Warning label
Screen shot 2011 06 21 at 10.28.05 AM
U.S. Food and Drug Administration

Nine new cigarette warning labels are set to be introduced at a White House press conference Tuesday afternoon, but the U.S. Food and Drug administration has given everybody a sneak peak on their website. And they’re not pretty.

Some of the more graphic images show a dead body, another has a man with smoke coming out through a hole in his neck, and one has a child being held in a parents arm with smoke floating in front of his face.

Gallery of Warning Labels

All the images were created to prevent children from smoking and to convince adults to quit, according to a statement from the U.S. Department of Health and Services.

“WARNING: Cigarettes cause strokes and heart disease,” reads one of the labels that features a man on a ventilator.

The image with the child breathing in second-hand some reads: “WARNING: Tobacco smoke can harm your children.”

The graphic images are part of The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act which was signed into law by President Obama in 2009. All cigarette packages and advertisements will require one of the nine warning labels on each box by October 22, 2012.

“President Obama is committed to protecting our nation’s children and the American people from the dangers of tobacco use. These labels are frank, honest and powerful depictions of the health risks of smoking and they will help encourage smokers to quit, and prevent children from smoking,” Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement. “President Obama wants to make tobacco-related death and disease part of the nation’s past, and not our future.”

Each warning label has the number 1-800-QUIT-NOW printed on the packaging for smokers who want to quit.

An accompanying message with an image of a person with decaying teeth reads: “Smoking causes approximately 90 percent of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80 percent of all lung cancer deaths in women. Smoking also causes cancers of the bladder, cervix, esophagus, kidney, larynx, lung, mouth, throat, stomach, uterus, and acute myeloid leukemia. Nearly one-third of all cancer deaths are directly linked to smoking.”