{"id":28587,"date":"2019-08-19T10:43:21","date_gmt":"2019-08-19T15:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/?p=28587"},"modified":"2019-08-19T10:43:21","modified_gmt":"2019-08-19T15:43:21","slug":"cigarette-packaging-and-smokers-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/2019\/08\/cigarette-packaging-and-smokers-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Cigarette Packaging and Smokers\u2019 Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I had the delightful opportunity at the beginning of the summer to deliver a conference paper in Portugal.\u00a0 Lisbon\u2019s cobblestone alleyways and bustling riverfront were exciting, but odd as it might seem, Portuguese cigarette packaging also caught my eye.<\/p>\n

All cigarette packs in Portugal have graphic images related to the dangers of smoking cigarettes: rotted teeth, amputated toes, diseased lungs, stitched-up chests, and naked corpses sprawled out on coroners\u2019 metal tables.\u00a0 The images and the accompanying verbal warnings take up the fronts and backs of the packs, and brand names such as \u201cMarlboro\u201d appear only on the narrow bottoms of the packs.<\/p>\n

None of the Portuguese smokers to whom I spoke \u2013 and there were plenty \u2013 seemed particularly offended by the packaging.\u00a0 So-called \u201cscare messages,\u201d after all, are genuinely intended to get smokers to stop.\u00a0 They are consistent with the World Health Organization\u2019 s directives regarding cigarette packaging, and graphic images appear on cigarette packs in most European countries.<\/p>\n

What about graphic images in the United States?\u00a0 It briefly seemed that they would begin appearing after the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act in 2009<\/a>.\u00a0 The Act in fact mandated them, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) formally approved nine graphic images that it considered especially likely to make people afraid of smoking.<\/p>\n

However, the tobacco industry and assorted neo-liberal pundits immediately rose up in arms.\u00a0 The former, of course, worried about its profits, and the latter championed the \u201cright to smoke.\u201d\u00a0 The graphic warnings, the pundits argued, interfered with freedom of choice.\u00a0 They were the efforts of the nefarious \u201cnanny state.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2012, the D.C. Circuit threw out the graphic images.\u00a0 The Court said the studies used to justify the graphic images were sloppy, do-good social science.\u00a0 Furthermore, the Court thought requiring the images violated commercial parties\u2019 speech rights.\u00a0 (See R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company et al. v. FDA, et al. 696 F.3d 1205 (D.C. Cir. 2012.)<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n

Given conflicting case law, the FDA had the option of proposing different images, but for reasons that are unclear the FDA took seven years to do so.\u00a0 Proposed in August, 2019, the new images are decidedly less gruesome than the earlier ones.\u00a0 The tobacco companies will have an opportunity to contest them, and even if the companies are unsuccessful, the absolute earliest the new images could appear would be September, 2021.<\/p>\n

American opposition to graphic images on cigarette packs, the concomitant support of some courts, and the foot-dragging of administrative agencies highlight an attitude that is not as evident in Portugal and other European countries.\u00a0 Stated simply, many Americans subscribe to a self-indulgent individualism, especially when it comes to leisure activities.\u00a0 Even people who do not smoke rarely challenge those who do.\u00a0 If people want to smoke, so be it.\u00a0 It\u2019s a private matter rather than as a public health problem with immense societal costs.<\/p>\n

Since smokers should be \u201cfree\u201d to smoke, the thinking goes, graphic images interfere with smokers\u2019 exercise of that freedom.\u00a0 Big Tobacco, of course, is only too happy to encourage this type of thinking and to champion \u201csmokers\u2019 rights.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had the delightful opportunity at the beginning of the summer to deliver a conference paper in Portugal.\u00a0 Lisbon\u2019s cobblestone alleyways and bustling riverfront were exciting, but odd as it might seem, Portuguese cigarette packaging also caught my eye. All cigarette packs in Portugal have graphic images related to the dangers of smoking cigarettes: rotted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[70,60,44,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-regulation","category-health-care","category-political-processes-rhetoric","category-public","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28587","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28587"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28587\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28589,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28587\/revisions\/28589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28587"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28587"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/law.marquette.edu\/facultyblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28587"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}