Needed: More explicit graphics on cigarette packets

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What you see in the slideshow are graphics that will be mandatory on all cigarette packs sold in the US from September 2012.

Predictably, big tobacco has hit back. “Five tobacco companies have sued the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over a new law that would force them to place graphic health warnings on their cigarette packets. The firms argue the plan violates their constitutional right to free speech, as it requires firms to promote the government’s anti-smoking message,”  reports BBC.com .

The US FDA says that the changed requirements for graphics were overdue. “Beginning September 2012, FDA will require larger, more prominent cigarette health warnings on all cigarette packaging and advertisements in the United States.  These warnings mark the first change in cigarette warnings in more than 25 years and are a significant advancement in communicating the dangers of smoking.”

Justifying the changes, the FDA says, “Tobacco use is the leading cause of premature and preventable death in the United States, and claims almost half a million lives each year.  Requiring larger, more prominent warnings on cigarette packaging  advertisements is part of a broader strategy to help tobacco users quit and prevent young people from starting.  The new warnings serve as reminder of the negative health consequences of smoking every time someone picks up a pack of cigarettes or views a cigarette advertisement.”

Many countries have graphics which are far more explicit than the FDA’s mandatory images, such as the one below from Bolivia.

What about India, where we have the fairly tame warnings on cigarette packets?  “Smoking kills 900,000 people every year in India, and unless corrective action is taken soon that number will increase to 1 million smoking-related deaths annually by 2010 and beyond, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine and conducted by scientists from India, Canada and the UK. For the study, 900 field workers gathered information from a sample of 1.1 million homes in all parts of India,”  says a report.

While smoking related deaths increase, the government goes soft on big tobacco in India. “In what could be a reprieve to the $4 billion beedi and cigarette industry, the government may allow it to get away with a milder version of pictorial warning on the harmful effects of smoking,”  says the Financial Express.

Can’t we learn something from the rest of the world — and from the nearly one million deaths?