For many smokers lighting up is an everyday habit. Something so routine many probably don't think twice when they're picking up another pack of cigarettes at the store. Soon the FDA and American Cancer Society are hoping that's about to change in September of 2012. That's when new graphic images with warnings will be required on every single pack of cigarettes. In total there will be nine graphic images along with statements about the harmful effects of smoking. One of them will be required on every single package of cigarettes.
Deb Murray is a respiratory therapist and the certified tobacco cessation expert at the Avera Heart Hospital. She says these new warnings are shocking for a good reason. "The shock factor. We are in a visual world and this just adds the visual factor of what smoking can do," Murray said.
The images graphically show the health risks associated with smoking, such as lung disease, cancer, heart disease, stroke, and even death. These will be the first warning label changes in 25 years. Murray says the number of Americans lighting up hasn't really changed in the past few years and many health experts are hoping these warnings will be just the thing to shake things up. "The American Cancer Society hopes these vivid images will spark the conversation again and make them think about the harmful effects smoking can cause," Murray said.
Murray also says she's spoken with many people who are trying to quit smoking and many of them ask her to show them graphic pictures of health risks. Murray says she hopes these images speak loudly to kids. Hopefully persuading them to never light up in the first place.
