BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- A federal judge halted a US government plan to require graphic warnings on cigarette packs for it may fuel more legal wrangling, according to media reports. Several US tobacco companies argued that the plan violated their constitutional right to free speech and have filed a lawsuit against the Food and Drug Administration, which worked out the plan this June.
On Monday, Judge Richard Leon of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia made a preliminary injunction to delay the requirement by September 2012 after the lawsuit was resolved.
The well-intentioned plan was made this June by the FDA, which approved nine graphic warnings, including images of diseased lungs and a corpse on an autopsy table.
The current warning labels are contained in the cigarette box with black-and-white text warning of smoking's dangers, which is not conspicuous enough. So the FDA, gaining authority in 2009 to oversee tobacco regulations, figured out the more obvious graphic warnings.
The agency intended to reduce the smoking rate among US adults from current 20 percent to 12 percent by 2020, the Wall Street Journal reported.
(Agencies) Editor: An
Poster Comment:
I guess the horrid pics would probably negate any benefits smoking might produce.