WASHINGTON-- In a White House video message in support of yesterday's "Great American Smokeout," former smoker President Barack Obama scolded tobacco companies, saying that they are fighting new cigarette warning labels because "they don't want to be honest about the consequences."
Watch the video below or click here.
He said that the country has made progress in reducing the number of Americans who smoke, but notes that 46 million are still addicted. "The fact is, quitting smoking is hard," he said. "Believe me, I know."
In 2009, the President signed the Family Smoking Prevention & Tobacco Control Act giving the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory control over tobacco. The FDA has approved new warning labels that companies would have to place on the top half of cigarette packs. Some of the labels are powerfully graphic and include images of a man exhaling cigarette smoke through a tracheotomy hole in his throat, the corpse of a dead smoker, diseased lungs and a smoker wearing an oxygen mask.
Earlier this month, a federal judge granted a request by five tobacco companies seeking to postpone the September 22, 2012, deadline for the labeling regulations to take effect while the court reviews their constitutionality. The preliminary injunction stays the effective date of the regulations until 15 months after the final resolution of the litigation.
Click here to view the FDA's graphic cigarette warning labels.
Companies led by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Tobacco Co. sued the FDA in August to block the labels, arguing the labels cross the line from fact-based warnings to anti-smoking advocacy.
(Click here for previous CSP Daily News coverage of the labels.)
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