WASHINGTON ? The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has answered the tobacco industry?s lawsuit that the new graphic cigarette labels scheduled to take effect in 2012 with an opposition brief, the Wall Street Journal reports. In August, four U.S. tobacco firms claimed in a lawsuit filed in federal court that the new cigarette packaging requirements infringed upon their free speech.
The labels, mandated by the federal government, will occupy the top half of both the front and back of the package and will show graphic images of a man with throat cancer or diseased gums, among other photographs. Accompanying the grisly pictures will be warnings, such as ?Smoking can kill you.?
The tobacco companies object to the labels on the grounds that they are unconstitutional. ?The notion that the government can require those who manufacture a lawful product to emblazon half of its package with pictures and words admittedly drafted to persuade the public not to purchase that product cannot withstand constitutional scrutiny,? said Floyd Abrams, a lawyer for Lorillard, one of the companies in the suit.
The FDA?s brief argues that the government has the In its opposition brief filed Friday, the FDA claims that the federal government has the power to curb speech if public interest warrants it. The agency said the new graphic photographs better convey smoking?s health risks than the current language.
More than 40 other nations have slapped graphic labels on cigarettes, many more explicit than those proposed by the United States. Recently, Australia?s tobacco firms have asked for an extension of its new packaging rules. The court case has a hearing scheduled for September 21.
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