Needed: More explicit graphics on cigarette packets

Explicit graphics will be mandatory on all cigarette packs sold in the US from September 2012. “Five tobacco companies have sued the US Food and Drug Administration over a new law that would force them to place graphic health warnings on their cigarette packets. “Beginning September 2012, FDA will require larger, more prominent cigarette health warnings on all cigarette packaging and 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 Many countries have graphics which are far more explicit than the FDA’s mandatory images, such as the one below from Bolivia. “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.