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Your Cigarette Pack Is About to Get A Whole New Scary Look
You can't smoke on many restaurant patios, in some apartments, and in several parks and public spaces in the greater Los Angeles area, but if you are still die-hard about the habit, just a heads up that come September, your pack of cigarettes is going to have one of nine new graphic warning images approved by the U.S. Department of Health.
Uncle Sam wants you to know that smoking can harm your baby, send you to an early grave, make your friends and loved ones sick, and eff you up something ugly. The U.S. is most certainly not the first nation to implement such an anti-smoking campaign on the cigarettes themselves; other countries, including many in Europe as well as Canada, "already require cigarettes to display graphic warnings prominently on their packaging," notes the L.A. Times.
The nine images selected by the Food and Drug Administration to run on cigarette packs starting September 22 came from a pool of 36 options. (To see the 27 rejected images, check out the gallery on CBS News' site.)
The goal of the labels is twofold; to turn off potential new smokers from lighting up and getting hooked, as well as to inspire current smokers to quit. The latter is addressed by the inclusion of the number of a stop-smoking helpline in the text of the warning. However, as the L.A. Times points out, that is a hard-won battle for many: "Every year, 40% of smokers try to kick the habit, but the odds are against them: Fewer than one in 10 of those who try to quit succeed."
Check out the nine images in our gallery. What do you think of the warning labels?
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