warning labels on cigarette packs and advertisements are about to get a lot more grisly this fall.

<div class="entry-thumb entry-thumb-article" style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; overflow: hidden; float: none; max-width: 600px; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><img alt="Courtesy of Andrew Strasser, Ph.D." class="attachment-article wp-post-image" height="400" src="http://timewellness.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/strasserimages.jpg?w=600&h=400&crop=1" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" title="graphic cigarette warning labels" width="600" /><div class="entry-thumb-meta" style="margin: 0px; padding: 5px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: #eeeeee;"><div class="entry-thumb-credit" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 5px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 9px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; line-height: normal; text-transform: uppercase; text-align: right; color: #4c4c4c;">COURTESY OF ANDREW STRASSER, PH.D.</div></div></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">If the U.S. <span style="color: #cc0000;">Food and Drug Administration</span> (FDA) <span style="color: #cc0000;">has its way</span>, warning labels on cigarette packs and advertisements are about to <span style="color: #cc0000;">get a lot more grisly this fall</span>.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">Under the 2009 Family <span style="color: #cc0000;">Smoking</span> Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which for first time gave the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco products, cigarette makers will be forced to cover half of all cigarette packs and 20% of all advertisements with one of <span style="color: #cc0000;">nine graphic warning labels</span> selected by the federal agency. The grim images on the labels include depictions of a smoker’s corpse, diseased lungs, and mottled and stained teeth and gums damaged by smoking.</p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;">The warning labels are currently <span style="color: #cc0000;">hung up in the courts</span>, however. Five tobacco companies are <span style="color: #cc0000;">suing the government</span> on the grounds that the new labels — which the companies argue are designed to provoke an emotional response and further the governments’ anti-smoking agenda, rather than simply conveying information to consumers — tread on their First Amendment right to free speech.</p><p><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline; font-family: Georgia, serif; line-height: 22px; text-align: left;"><br /><br /><br /></span></p>

warning labels on cigarette packs and advertisements are about to get a lot more grisly this fall.

COURTESY OF ANDREW STRASSER, PH.D. If the U.S.  Food and Drug Administration  (FDA)  has its way , warning labels on cigarette packs and adv...

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