May 23, 2013
Corpses, cancer patients and diseased lungs.
They're some of the images the federal government plans for larger, graphic warning labels that will take up half of each cigarette package.
The images are part of a new campaign announced by the Food and
Drug Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services. They want to reduce tobacco use, responsible for about 443,000 deaths per year.
The share of Americans who smoke has fallen dramatically since
1970 from nearly 40 percent to about 20 percent, but those declines
have stalled recently. At the same time, the average cost per pack
has gone from 38 cents to more than $5.
About 46 million adults in the U.S. smoke cigarettes, and so do
about 20 percent of high school students.
