WASHINGTON, D.C. -- As a lawsuit challenging graphic cigarette warning labels -- filed by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Lorillard Tobacco Co., Commonwealth Brands Inc., Liggett Group LLC and Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Company Inc. -- awaits its day in court, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services penned an opinion letter discussing the suit in the Washington Post.
Sebelius said that blocking the warning labels would be a "huge setback for our children's health" in the letter.
The companies filed the suit in August, which seeks a preliminary injunction to stay the effective date of the regulation and a declaration that the regulation is unconstitutional. "The Rule infringes Plaintiffs' right to engage in free speech, including commercial speech with lawful adult customers, under the First Amendment," according to the motion for preliminary injunction.
The requirement is for the graphic images -- with depictions including corpses, rotted teeth and diseased lungs -- to be displayed at the top 50% of front and rear panels on cigarette packages and cartons. Each warning is accompanied by a smoking cessation phone number, 1-800-QUIT-NOW and one of nine textual warning statements.
"What can be done to protect our children?" Sebelius writes. "A good first step would be continuing to implement the bipartisan tobacco control legislation signed in 2009 by President Obama that established the graphic warning labels."
She writes that the health-consequence oriented messages are the same messages conveyed now by written warning labels. "But experts tell us that these images and the revised warning statements are far more effective at grabbing people's attention and getting the information to sink in."
She adds that efforts like banning flavored cigarettes (except menthol) and banning cigarette brand sponsorships of concerts and sporting events will make it "much harder for the tobacco industry to use its nearly $10 billion marketing budget" to market toward children.
Sebelius concludes that the Obama administration "will continue to take all appropriate steps to reduce the marketing, sale and appeal of tobacco products to America's youth."
A hearing on the preliminary injunction, which seeks to postpone implementation of the graphic warning "until 15 months after the validity of the Rule has been determined" by the court is scheduled for September 21.
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