UPDATE: US Proposes New Warnings On Cigarettes, Advertisements

Federal health officials will unveil new health warnings Wednesday that would appear on cigarette packages and advertisements.

A 2009 law requires larger and more graphic health warnings on cigarettes as part of an effort to discourage people from starting to smoke and to lower current smoking rates. Currently, 20.6% adults and 19.5% of high school students smoke cigarettes, according to government figures.

The Food and Drug Administration has developed 36 proposed images and will be accepting public comment on them until January.

The agency will then select nine images that will be required to be placed on all cigarette packages and advertisements no later than Oct. 22, 2012. The proposed images and warnings are scheduled to be released at a press conference in Washington Wednesday with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and other top health officials.

The changes will affect all tobacco companies including Altria Group Inc. (MO), the parent company of Philip Morris USA, Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) and Lorillard Inc. (LO).

Earlier this year a federal district-court judge in Kentucky upheld many of the provisions of a 2009 law that gave the FDA the authority to regulate tobacco including a requirement that companies place large, graphic health warnings on cigarette packs.

However, the judge ruled that can't block companies from using color or graphics in their advertisements, meaning the FDA can't require black-and-white only packaging or advertising.

Reynolds American and Lorillard filed a lawsuit last year against the U.S. government challenging some of the provisions of the 2009 tobacco law.

-By Jennifer Corbett Dooren, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9294; jennifer.corbett@dowjones.com

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