Should Graphic Warnings Be Required on Cigarette Packs?

Once the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Margaret Chan said “tobacco is the only industry that produces products to make huge profits and at the same time damage the health and kill their consumers.” Tobacco is one of the main addictions that lead to millions of deaths, and hence, it is still not banned, but companies make millions of dollars by manufacturing cigarettes. Many people believe that graphic warnings would be one of the ways to reduce the number of people smoking, and prevent from diseases such as cancer, or lung problems. However, tobacco industries oppose to this movement because it is effecting their profits and reputation. This is a very egoistic perspective because they use the population to become a profitable company while millions of people suffer on that. People has been fighting with this issue since century where graphic warnings have not been fully accepted by the government. Therefore, Food and Drug Administration intentions are to put 6 graphic pictures showing effects of smoking such as, a man exhaling cigarette smoke through a tracheotomy hole in his throat or an infant surrounded by cigarette smoke or two pictures of a healthy lung and an ill lung and many more. Ultimately, graphic warnings should be required on cigarette packs because it educates about health risks, decreases smoking rate in the society, and reduces attractiveness of smoking among adults and juveniles.

Argument 1

First of all, warning labels are not effective due to the simple and unattractive pictorial designs. Existing warning labels have been around since 1984 and they now go unnoticed because of small print with a plane black and white text, while design of the packaging overwhelms the warning label. After so m...

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...people to educate themselves about tobacco disease and prevent current and non-current smokers from smoking. This is minorities people are not aware of tobacco’s health risk because of low level of education or low income are put under high stress. Also, low income that is usually a factor of lack of education, puts people in a lot of stress making them to reach for cigarettes more often. Therefore, all these reasons contribute to the fact that tobacco pictorial labels are not misleading and advances the interest of the government. Many research provides evidence of tobacco being harmful, showing government that smoking is a main factor of causing thousands of deaths in the United States and around the world. With all that said, one of the American Actors, Jeremy London said “A lot of people in my life are getting sick or potentially going to get sick from tobacco.”