FDA reveals better warning labels for cigarette packets

[Esper]

Yeah... this doesn't look like it's going to solve anything.

If we could just ban smoking in public the smoking problem would be mostly solved as far as I'm concerned.

I gotta agree. Just ban smoking anywhere in public and empower people to support this ban themselves rather than target the smokers themselves. Make public smoking an acceptable target for our collective scorn.

 

[groteske]

Smoking's adverse health effects have been drilled into every child starting in elementary school since the seventies. I've never run into a smoker that was clueless or in denial about health damage. If anything, smokers themselves have been more knowledgeable on the subject than nonsmokers, and for obviously good reason.

It's hard to quit half because of the physical addiction to nicotine, and half because of the relaxed, almost escapist environment created while you smoke.

Tobacco is a huge industry with an enormous amount of pull. No half-wit in power is going to let it (or be allowed to) be squashed. Banning smoking sounds like a goodhearted, conscientious decision but no, sorry, that's not how it works.

 

[Legobricks]

Having been about tabacco packaging like that already for years now; I can't say it changes anything, just looks awkward. Actually, along with public bans, it only makes me resent the anti-smoking attitude of recent decades even more.

 

[Spherical Ice]

From the point of view of somebody who isn't against others smoking but doesn't ever want to smoke himself, it's just a disturbance to go to buy a chocolate bar or something and see somebody's rotting teeth on the shelf beside them.

 

[Palkia]

Coming from someone who has 50% of his family smoking, these pictures always irked me out of smoking. I do wish this makes a impact, as many lives are lost because of smoking.

 

[Masqueraine]

That's awkward to look at. I guess that's the point but I didn't know the government could force companies to put all this jazz on their products basically saying don't buy our products, especially when they already had warning labels on them in the first place and everybody (literally) knows that smoking cigarettes never did anybody good. I don't like all this government involvement where it shouldn't be.

 

[Shizz]

So long as there are people that say "It makes me feel good." there will be those curious enough to try it once. And then again a few months later, and then it eventually just becomes a thing. Human curiosity works wonders. ...Though I'm still perplexed on why anyone thought cow-pie mushrooms would be a good thing to put in their mouth.

 

[groteske]

So long as there are people that say "It makes me feel good." there will be those curious enough to try it once.

That and "no, don't do it, it's bad". And people wonder why, despite increasing "anti-tobacco" campaigns, the number of smokers per capita mostly stays constant, despite an aging & dying population.

 

[chanchimi]

Good. I'm happy they'll be using these new labels. Sure, they may not make people quit, and people are still going to smoke, but there will still be some people, maybe kids, or some adults will choose not smoke. Or quit. :)

 

[Livewire]

So long as there are people that say "It makes me feel good." there will be those curious enough to try it once. And then again a few months later, and then it eventually just becomes a thing. Human curiosity works wonders. ...Though I'm still perplexed on why anyone thought cow-pie mushrooms would be a good thing to put in their mouth.

People use it like a crutch. Most smokers smoke because they feel that it relieves stress, and calms them in most cases. Same as Alcohol - it's addicting. So smoking rates probably don't change much because people stay addicted to it for a long time. And it doesn't kill immediately.

 

[Alley Cat]

I think this is a pretty nifty idea. This will stop all those would-be smokers that attempt to do it look. Because honestly, after seeing that, I hate cigarettes EVEN MORE. My mom, dad, both my grandmas, cousins, aunts, and uncles all smoke. A lot of people that I hang out with smoke.

Thing is? They hate it. They wish that they never even started. They think they are most disgusting thing in the world, and their advice is always: Don't start smoking. I haven't met anyone who has pressured someone into smoking cigarettes, they always tell the opposite actually. Those who smoke, only say that they do it because they are so far down the road and addicted, that quitting is hard. They all have tried and failed at one point. Either because 1) they aren't committed enough or 2) they are still in a cigarette heavy environment . But also, maybe when they go to reach for their pack, this will remind them not to, or at least make them think about it. It could work, honestly.

But like other people have said, this isn't so much a tool employed to help people quit, as it a tool employed to sop people from starting. Sometimes the best cure is prevention, stop it before it even starts, and then you don't even have a problem.

But.. smoking does stay constant... because there is honestly too much tobacco in this world. I know people who have quit for years, and after being around the stuff for so long have started to gain cravings for it and the desire to smoke again. Solution: Cut tobacco down. Problem: Higher unemployment.

This reaches a bit of a impasse there.

 

[~*!*~Tatsujin Gosuto~*!*~]

Even if they didn't make better warning labels, it will not effect me because I do not smoke because I knew as a Child that it was deadly as well as when I was younger, I would choke every time someone would smoke near me and thats how I got asthma (thank you stupid smokers >_<") But Anyways, those maybe some graphic images but I still think people aren't going to come to their senses. They have advertisements like this aired all the time on television and most people still do not listen.



:t354:TG

 

[Myles]

Removing the tobacco industry could potentially make room for new areas in the economy and create more jobs due to the inertia of freed up money. People will put their money into something else which increases the demand and thus the amount of employees needed to meet that demand. Joblessness is not caused by trivial things like this.

Besides, saying that people should die so that some people can have jobs is ridiculous.

Anyway. I don't see why this would work. In Australia we've gone even further still without results.

 

[FreakyLocz14]

I just thought about what it would be like to go to the grocery store and have children see pictures of people's rotting teeth and lungs on display. It's not a pretty sight, I'm betting.

 

[Myles]

In Australia they have to be out of view until asked for. :P

 

[Livewire]

I just thought about what it would be like to go to the grocery store and have children see pictures of people's rotting teeth and lungs on display. It's not a pretty sight, I'm betting.

That's basically the whole point. Fear makes for a powerful deterrent.

 

[The Void]

Do you know that the reason most people smoke is because they wanna kill themselves? After all, they know the risks and effects and everything.

I once saw a cigarette dish saying "I love cancer" and my friend's uncle said that he smokes so he can have cancer. What the heck...?

 

[Nihilego]

Did they even do any research before passing this? Ask existing smokers if a picture and a bigger warning on cigarette cartons would help them avoid smoking and 99% of them will say no, because they are still addicted. An addiction can't be addressed by a simple image. Honestly the most helpful anti-smoking aid on the cigarette packs is the helpline or the pricetag. I firmly believe that existing smokers are aware of, and in come cases have experienced, the risks of smoking and hammering these risks into them even more is just wasted ink.

Outside of addiction, these do not deter people who are going to smoke. Someone who is of an age to even understand smoking will know of its risks; they have had adverts played to them all their lives, they've seen pictures of what cigarette smoke does, they've heard stories about people whose lives have been ruined by smoking, they know the risks of second-hand smoke, and they've probably been taught about it in school too yet they still do it. Adding one more little picture isn't going to save anyone.

Do you know that the reason most people smoke is because they wanna kill themselves? After all, they know the risks and effects and everything.

This is probably one of the most wrong things I have ever read. It is certainly not true that all smokers are suicidal. People start smoking for a great number of reasons, including social pressures, stress, etc. The possibility of dying from it is not one of them. Yes, smokers do know the risks, but just because they do something which has a risk doesn't mean they want to die. That's just illogical and wrong.

I once saw a cigarette dish saying "I love cigarettes" and my friend's uncle said that he smokes so he can have cancer. What the heck...?

You get "I <3 Whatever" merchandise all the time. Just because it's an ashtray doesn't make it any different. I admit that what your friend's uncle said was a bit odd, but not representative of the entire population of smokers in any way.

 

[Livewire]

Do you know that the reason most people smoke is because they wanna kill themselves? After all, they know the risks and effects and everything.

Or, you know, because Nicotine (An active ingredient in cigarette smoke) is an addictive substance.