United States: Federal appeals court upholds legality of health warnings on cigarette packages

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans unanimously upheld the legality of graphic health warnings on cigarette packages that followed a 2020 Food and Drug Administration rule. The decision overturns a lower court judge’s decision that had blocked the warnings. Rejecting objections from the tobacco industry, the appeals court found that the FDA’s warnings were “factual and uncontroversial” and did not violate the First Amendment.

Congress had passed the introduction of graphic health warnings as part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009. The warnings were to cover the top half of the front and back of cigarette packages, and the permitted area for the package's advertising size was limited to 20 %.

A decisive step towards the establishment of health warnings in the United States

The appeals court decision confirms that the FDA’s graphic health warnings on cigarette packages are scientifically and legally sound. The decision is an important step toward the full implementation of graphic health warnings in the United States, which were first enacted by Congress in 2009. Public health experts say the warnings are badly needed because the current text warnings on packages have become outdated since they were last updated in 1984.[1]. Over the past 40 years, cigarette packets have carried the same warnings about the link between smoking and lung cancer, emphysema and cardiovascular disease. Their unchanged content, small size and textual nature without images explain their limited effects on smokers' smoking behavior.

The tobacco industry's constant opposition

In 2011, the FDA released nine visual health warnings, along with a link to a smoking cessation hotline. Cigarette maker RJ Reynolds and other tobacco companies sued the FDA under the First Amendment, arguing that echoing the government’s “ideological messages” infringed on their free speech and failed to address established facts. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled in their favor in 2012, finding that the visuals were too provocative and that it was intimidating to urge smokers to quit. The recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals is part of a long process of legal challenges.

Because of these lawsuits by tobacco companies, the United States now ranks last in the world in the size of its health warnings. It has fallen behind many countries in implementing this cost-effective measure, which is now required by 138 countries and territories worldwide.

Keywords: United States, graphic health warnings, lobby, interference, tobacco industry, Court of Appeals, FDA

©Tobacco Free Generation

AE

[1] Communicated, In Victory for Public Health, Federal Appeals Court Upholds FDA's Graphic Cigarette Warnings, Truth Initiative, published March 22, 2024, accessed April 3, 2024