Following the examples of countries such as Australia, Malaysia and Pakistan, the U.S. Government’s Food and Drug Administration, for the first time in 25 years, is cutting to the chase to warn consumers about the dangers of cigarette smoking.
Smoking Cigarette in a Hand
Photos of lungs ruined by cigarette smoke, a man smoking a cigarette but blowing the smoke out of a tracheotomy hole, a corpse and other graphic images, along with the number 1-800-QUIT-NOW, will be displayed on half of the front and back of cigarette packages and on 20 percent of cigarette advertisements in September of 2012.
Said Dr. Stanton Glantz, director of UCSF’s Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, “The United States has the weakest, most outdated warning labels in the world, so anything we do to the packaging will be an improvement.”
The United States has stepped up anti-smoking laws. Although there is no statewide smoking ban in states such as Texas or Alabama, in many other states smoking is banned in restaurants, hotels and even bars. However, despite these bans, according to the CDC, at least 443,000 Americans die from cigarette smoking every year. The dire statistics on cigarette, pipe and cigar smoking contribute to the stepped up campaign by the U.S. government.
* 85 percent of lung cancers in the U.S. are caused by smoking.
* According to the American Cancer Society, “Smoking cigarettes kills more Americans than alcohol, car accidents, suicide, AIDS, homicide, and illegal drugs combined.”
* Smoking harms almost every organ in the body.
* The U.S. aside, the World Health Organization warns that deaths attributed to tobacco could grow to eight billion a year by 2030.
* At least $150 billion annually is spent on health care costs in the United States from people smoking.
* When a pregnant woman smokes, the chemicals from the cigarettes pass to the unborn child through the placenta.
* Nicotine can pass to a baby through breast milk.
* At least 126 million Americans who do not smoke are exposed to secondhand smoke in homes, vehicles, public venues and workplaces.
* At least 53,800 people die from exposure to second hand smoke every year.
* There is no safe tobacco product. All tobacco is harmful.
* If you smoke a pipe or a cigar, whether or not you inhale, you expose your lips, throat, mouth, tongue, and larynx to cancer from the tobacco smoke.
* According to WHO, “There is no safe level of exposure to tobacco smoke. Creating 100 percent smoke-free environments is the only way to protect people from the harmful effects of second-hand tobacco smoke.”
* The benefits of quitting smoking include reductions in the health risks that contribute most to American deaths every year. For example, your risk of stroke reduces to that of an individual who never smoked after 5 to 15 years of not smoking, and the risk of heart disease reduces by half just 1 year after quitting and almost the same as someone who has never smoked 15 years after quitting.
