Washington (CNN) -- Nine new graphic cigarette warning labels showing cancerous lesions and other impacts of smoking were unveiled Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration, part of the agency's sweeping new powers to regulate tobacco and tobacco products.
"With these warnings, every person who picks up a pack of cigarettes is going to know exactly what risk they're taking," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters.
Sebelius called smoking and other tobacco use the "number one cause of preventable death" in America, claiming more than 440,000 lives a year.
Cigarette packages will now carry one vivid color image and one of these warnings about the consequences of smoking: "Cigarettes are addictive"; "Tobacco smoke can harm your children"; "Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease"; "Cigarettes cause cancer"; "Cigarettes cause strokes and heart disease"; "Smoking during pregnancy can harm your baby"; "Smoking can kill you"; "Tobacco smoke causes fatal lung disease in nonsmokers"; and "Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to your health."
The warnings, which must be in place by September 2012, will cover the upper portion of the pack both front and back. At least 50% of the package will have to be covered.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/06/21/cigarette.labels/
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They flat out said "Smoking Causes Death" and some even had a skull and cross bones on them. Far from changing my smoking habits, I just felt like I was a card carrying pirate. We'd sit and joke about the warning while we were smoking, making up alternative warnings we thought would be better.