OAN Staff Abril Elfi
4:30 PM – Monday, November 25, 2024
The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear a challenge from major tobacco companies to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) requirement that they place graphic health warnings on cigarette packages and in advertisements “showing the impacts of smoking.”
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On Monday, the court declined to hear the challenge.
R.J. Reynolds, a tobacco company, filed the case after the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) packaging requirement was consistent with the First Amendment.
The company claimed that the images required by the FDA were “compelled speech” that violated the First Amendment. The FDA’s proposed labels included images of tumors, black lungs, surgery scars, and other health risks, as well as messages outlining the dangers of smoking.
R.J. Reynolds also argued that some of the proposed labels could be misleading and could possibly “overstate” the dangers of smoking.
Meanwhile, the FDA claimed that the images reflected the undeniable dangers of smoking, depicting a “factually accurate, common visual representation of the health condition and shows the disease state as it is typically experienced.”
According to the presented statement, cigarettes cause more than 480,000 deaths each year, prompting the FDA to urge the government to end the history of cigarette companies “knowingly and actively conspir[ing] to deceive the public about the health risks and addictiveness of smoking.”
Approximately 120 other countries have large graphic warnings on the packages, which studies suggest may be more effective at advertising cigarette smoking risks.
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