Graphic warnings delayed again in the US amid consideration of lawsuits and the continuing evidence that "gory" warnings are not a very effective deterrent.
Attempts to put larger and more gruesome graphic warning on cigarette packs in the US face another setback as the US Food and Drug administration (FDA) postponed the effective date for the fourth time in less than two years. The latest deadline is now October 11, 2022, with companies urged to submit their warning rotation plans by December 12.
FDA first proposed new cigarette warning requirements in 2019, the first time in 35 years, and issued a final rule in March 2020. A few weeks later, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Santa Fe Natural Tobacco Co., ITG Brands, Liggett Group, and five tobacco retailers filed a lawsuit in the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to invalidate the health warnings. Philip Morris USA, Inc. and Sherman Group Holdings, LLC., filed a second lawsuit claiming violations of the First Amendment and a failure by FDA to meet its own policymaking requirements.
Had things gone according to FDA plans, the warnings would have appeared on packs by June 18, 2021. But in May 2020, the court ordered the effective date delayed to October 16, 2021. On December 2020, the court postponed the implementation date for the new graphic warnings again to January 14, 2022. On March 2021, the court postponed the implementation date for the third time to April 14, 2022. Most recently, on August 2021, the court ordered the effective date postponed yet again by six months to October next year.
Over 120 countries already adopted graphic warnings on cigarette packs. However, a 2019 study by researchers from Australia’s James Cook University on smoker perceptions of health warnings on cigarette packets in Australia, Canada, UK, and US showed that smokers perceived the warnings as being minimally effective in prompting them to quit smoking due to desensitization and irrelevance of the warnings.
One Australian study participant said, “Smokers are immune to pictures and words. I couldn’t even tell you what is on the packet I’m smoking now.” Another participant from Canada said, “If someone is willing to smoke, they will smoke no matter what the message or image on the packet is.”
A new study this year by a team of researchers led by Professor David Strong from the School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) studied how smokers from San Diego responded to graphic warning labels on packs sold in Australia. The team found the graphic warning increased quitting cognitions but did not affect either cigarette cessation or consumption levels. Study senior author, Karen Messer, a professor of biostatistics in UCSD's School of Public Health, said, "While these labels make smokers more likely to think about quitting, it did not make them more likely to make a serious quit attempt, nor was it sufficient to help them quit their nicotine addiction."