US Judge Suspends Health Graphic Warnings

The judge of the United States has suspended a US regulation regarding cigarette companies to display health graphic warnings on cigarette packages, like a man blowing cigarette smoke on his child and many others.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June of this year presented nine graphic warnings that should be introduced in September 2012, which is the first significant change in US tobacco health warnings in 25 years. Cigarette packages already have text warnings from the US Surgeon General.
The new labels have to cover the top half of the front and back of cigarette packages and also should contain color images demonstrating the health consequences of smoking, including diseased lungs, bad teeth and dead bodies.
“The Congress ordered the size and location of the graphic warning before charging the FDA with fulfilling the mandate, by doing so it doesn’t empower this requirement to automatically adopt constitutional model,” said US District Judge Richard Leon.
The tobacco lawsuit is latest possible attempt by corporation to contest a right to free speech, a long and severe battle that could end before the US Supreme Court.
Reynolds American, Lorillard Inc, Liggett Group LLC and Commonwealth Brands Inc. sued the FDA in August this year.
They declared that the given labels force them to take part in anti-smoking advocacy on the government’s behalf infringing their right to free speech.
The cigarette industry has required Leon to suspend the FDA's new requirements, delaying the decision onhttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5313138106530688848&postID=1342925761538679584 their constitutionality.
They declare that they needed a fast resolution because they would have to launch in November and spend millions of dollars in order to comply with the requirements.
Justice Department representatives had stated that the money was an insignificant fraction of the company’s net sales, so they would not go through irremediable hazard without the temporary injunction.
Government attorneys declared the labels communicated the hazards of smoking more efficiently than words alone, and were required to discourage more people from smoking, especially youngsters.
Floyd Abrams, Lorillard’s lawyer stated that the given case was in it early stages and there was a “positive chance” that it will finally reach the US Supreme Court.
The Dow Jones www.cigarettespub.biz index, whose participants are Altria, Lorillard and Reynolds American, was only 0.05 % higher in today’s trading.
Altria Group is not covered by the given lawsuit.
The given case covers R.J Reynolds Tobacco, US Food and Drug Administration and US District Court for the District of Columbia.

TobACCo And HEALTH In EnGLAnd

Tobacco use remains one of our most significant public health challenges. While rates of smoking have continued to decline over the past decades, 21 per cent of adults in England still smoke. Smoking prevalence has fallen little since 2007 and we need to take new action to drive prevalence down further.

While in the past more men than women smoked, today the prevalence of smoking is about the same for men and women.ii Smoking rates vary considerably between different social groups and it is most common among people who earn the least, and least common among people who earn the most. In recent times, smoking has become one of the most significant causes of health inequalities.

Smoking is the primary cause of preventable morbidity and premature death, accounting for 81,400 deaths in England in 2009, some 18 per cent of all deaths of adults aged 35 and over.ii In 2009, a larger proportion of men than women died from smoking-related diseases, reflecting the higher rates of smoking by men in the past.

The tobacco industry

“More people smoke today than at any other time in human history. One person dies every ten seconds due to smoking-related diseases. Research evidence in the past five years shows a bleaker picture of the health danger of smoking than previously realised. Tobacco is the biggest killer, much bigger in dimension than all other forms of pollution.
Children are the most vulnerable. Habits start in youth. The tobacco industry knows it and acts accordingly. This is a medical challenge, but also a cultural challenge. Let us all speak out: tobacco is a killer. It should not be advertised, subsidised or glamourised. Adolescents should not be allowed to mortgage their lives to the seductive advertisements of the industry.
Girls and women are being targeted all over the world by expensive and seductive tobacco advertising images of freedom, emancipation, slimness, glamour and wealth.
Tobacco companies should be accountable for the harm caused by tobacco use. The day I took office I launched the Tobacco Free Initiative (TFI) to spearhead the struggle to reverse the worsening trends in health caused by tobacco and to add momentum to a critical public health struggle.
The initiative aims at heightening global awareness of the need to address tobacco consumption. It also seeks to build new partnerships and strengthen existing partnerships for action against tobacco; to commission policy research to fill gaps; and, to accelerate national and global policy to implement strategies. The way it works illustrates the way we wish WHO to work in the future making the most of our own resources and knowledge and drawing heavily on the knowledge and experience of others.
Our goals are to:
• build “a vibrant alliance” between WHO, UNICEF, the World Bank, and “partnerships with a purpose” with non governmental organisations, the private sector, academic/research institutions and donors.
• try to get more people to work on and support tobacco control activities and ensure that more resources are committed to tobacco research, policy and control.
• develop the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the world's first public health treaty. The treaty will only be effective if it works in conjunction with, and builds upon, sound domestic interventions. The good news is that the epidemic does not have to continue this way. There is a political solution to tobacco – a solution routed through ministries of finance and agriculture as well as health and education. We know that tobacco control measures can lead to a reduction in smoking as witnessed among some member states. WHO, the World Bank and public health experts have identified a combination of the following as having a measurable and sustained impact on tobacco use:
• increased excise taxes;
• bans on tobacco advertising, sponsorship and marketing;
• controls on smoking in public places and workplaces;
• expanded access to effective means of quitting;
• tough counteradvertising;
• tight controls on smuggling. These must all be implemented if the predicted expansion of the epidemic as outlined in this atlas is to be prevented. The picture is far from bleak. Globally, we have seen a sea change over the past few years. A groundswell of local, national and global actions is moving the public health agenda ahead.

A message from
Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland
Director-General
World Health Organization