3rd UPDATE: US Unveils New Health Warnings On Cigarettes, Advertisements

Graphic images depicting dead bodies and diseased lungs were unveiled by federal health officials Wednesday as part of a move to require bolder health warnings on cigarettes and advertising.

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 images and will be accepting public comment on them until January before it narrows the selection to nine.

The warnings will be required to be placed on all cigarette packages and advertisements after the images and warnings are finalized next June. Tobacco companies will have until Sept. 22, 2012 to start using the new packaging and advertising. After Oct. 22, cigarettes that don't have the new packaging cannot be sold.

The pictures and warnings such as "smoking can kill you" and "cigarettes cause cancer" will be required to be placed on the top half of cigarette packages with the brand name on the lower portion of the packages. The warnings will be required to cover 50% of the front and back panels of a cigarette pack as well as the top 20% of cigarette advertisement.

"It will drastically change the look and message on a pack of cigarettes," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said at a press conference announcing the new warnings.

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).

FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said there's a mandate "to mix up" cigarette packaging and advertising with each of the nine images and health warnings so consumers see a variety of warnings.

In a statement, Philip Morris said it has supported "several of the initiatives" in the tobacco law and will provide comments to the FDA on the images as part of public-comment process.

A Reynolds American spokesman said the company hadn't had a chance to fully review the advertising and packaging proposal, but is involved in a lawsuit challenging the government's authority to regulate tobacco packaging and advertising.

Current warnings on cigarettes sold in the U.S. typically appear in small typeface on the side of a package. One warning states that smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema and may complicate pregnancy.

Health officials estimate that smoking-related costs add about $100 billion annually to the nation's health-care costs. There about 440,000 deaths in the U.S. annually caused by lung cancer and other diseases that are linked to smoking.

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 it 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. The ruling is on appeal.

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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