Health : Health Buzz: Graphic Cigarette Warnings Released

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Health Buzz: Graphic Cigarette Warnings Released Posted: 21 Jun 2011 08:15 AM PDT One of the FDA's new cigarette health warnings. Corpses, Cancerous Lungs Will be Stamped on Cigarette Packs The federal government has unveiled nine graphic images that must appear on all cigarette packs and advertisements by next year—part of a new strategy to convey the dangers of smoking. The images, released Tuesday, include a corpse, a man smoking through a tracheotomy hole in his throat, cancer-riddled lungs, and rotting teeth and gums. Messages like "Warning: Smoking can kill you" and "Warning: Cigarettes cause cancer" are also stamped on the images. Cigarette makers who don't comply with the new requirement by October 2012 will not be allowed to sell their brands in the United States. The images must cover 50 percent of the front and backside of cigarette packs, as well as the top 20 percent of cigarettes advertisements. Smoking causes 443,000 deaths in the U.S. each year; the new warnings are expected to help 213,000 Americans kick the habit by 2013, the Associated Press reports. "These labels are frank, honest, and powerful depictions of the health risks of smoking," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a statement to the press. Stop Smoking: Secrets of Successful Quitters What We Know About How to Quit 12 Reasons to Really Quit Smoking We'll spare you the lecture. (Seriously, though. Stamp out that butt and flush the pack, already.) Tobacco use, namely cigarette smoking, is the chief cause of preventable death in the U.S. Left unbridled, smoking could kill more than a billion people this century, according to the World Health Organization. The reasons to quit smoking keep amassing—and they're not all about heart disease, lung cancer, or respiratory problems. Here's a few downsides you might not have considered. 1. It fogs the mind. Smoking may cloud the mind, according to accumulating research. A 2008 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that smoking in middle age is linked to memory problems and to a slide in reasoning abilities, though these risks appeared lessened for those who'd long quit; this is important, the authors wrote, because other research has shown that people with mild cognitive impairment in midlife develop dementia at an accelerated rate. Their report piggybacks on several focused on the older set: A 2007 analysis of 19 prior studies concluded that elderly smokers face a heightened risk of dementia and cognitive decline, compared with lifelong nonsmokers. And in 2004, researchers reported in Neurology that smoking appeared to hasten cognitive decline in dementia-free elderly smokers, bringing it on several times faster than in their nonsmoking peers. 2. It may bring on diabetes. As if we need any more risk factors for diabetes, an analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that across 25 prior studies, current smokers have a 44 percent greater chance of developing type 2 diabetes than nonsmokers do, and the risk was strongest for those with the heaviest habit, who clocked 20 or more cigarettes per day. In an accompanying editorial, researchers made a striking estimation: That some 12 percent of all type 2 diabetes cases nationwide might be attributable to smoking. [Read more: 12 Reasons to Really Quit Smoking.] Can Hypnosis Snuff Out a Smoker's Cigarette Habit? Bad Health Habits Rob 12 Years From Life Span: 6 Ways to Boost Willpower Is It Possible to Be Smoke Free in 30 Days? By now, it's almost a cliché to reiterate that smoking is the chief cause of preventable death in the U.S. Yet approximately 46 million Americans are still lighting up, according to estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. U.S. News spoke to clinical psychologist Daniel Seidman, director of smoking cessation services at Columbia University Medical Center, about his book Smoke-Free in 30 Days: The Pain-Free, Permanent Way to Quit (Fireside Trade Paperback Original). In it, Seidman draws on his 20-plus years of experience with thousands of patients and walks people through the quitting process—including how to prepare for the "quit day" and how to maintain their success. The big obstacles to quitting, he said, are numerous: "Really, there are three hurdles people have to get past: the physical, the automated behavior (which is the habit), and emotional belief systems. Most people, when they think about this addiction to smoking, think of it as a physical problem with some element of habit. But I think people really don't get that for many smokers, making a good emotional adjustment after they quit is the hardest thing. If every time for 20 years you get upset you take a cigarette, that's going to become very much a part of your emotional repertoire, right? Once you can get [people] to think differently about that emotional belief system, it really helps them move beyond smoking and lose interest in it." [Read more: Is It Possible to Be Smoke Free in 30 Days?] Check Out How 'Smoke Free' Your State Is 10 Smokiest U.S. Cities—and 10 Most Smoke-Free, Too This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

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