NCI Cancer Bulletin for November 16, 2010 - National Cancer Institute

HHS Releases New Tobacco Control Strategy for the Nation


At a press conference on November 10, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced proposed graphic warning labels that will appear on cigarette packs and in advertisements. [Enlarge]

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) last week unveiled a new comprehensive tobacco control strategy that seeks to help smokers quit and stop others from starting to use tobacco. One high profile piece of the plan will result in bolder health warnings that must cover the upper half of the front and back of cigarette packages and at least 20 percent of tobacco product advertisements beginning in 2012.

“We want to make sure that every person who picks up a pack of cigarettes knows exactly what the risk is they are taking,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius during a November 10 press conference at George Washington University in Washington, DC, an event that also featured FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Dr. Howard Koh.

“This will be the most significant change to health warnings on cigarettes and in cigarette advertisements in more than 25 years,” said Dr. Hamburg. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, passed in 2009, granted the FDA authority to regulate the manufacture, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products, and the new warnings provide a concrete example of how that regulation can benefit public health, she added.

Other countries have implemented similar graphic warning labels on cigarette packages, noted Dr. Cathy Backinger, chief of NCI’s Tobacco Control Research Branch (TCRB) in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences (DCCPS), and, based on research findings in recent years, Americans can expect that the new U.S. warning labels will help drive down smoking rates. “The data show that depicting the nature and magnitude of the harms of tobacco use in a realistic manner motivates smokers to quit,” she said.

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NCI Cancer Bulletin for November 16, 2010 - National Cancer Institute