Health : Health Buzz: Tobacco Companies File Suit Against FDA

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Health Buzz: Tobacco Companies File Suit Against FDA Posted: 17 Aug 2011 11:54 AM PDT One of the FDA's new cigarette health warnings. Cigarette Makers Sue FDA Over Graphic-Label Rule Five tobacco companies sued the federal government Tuesday to delay a new Food and Drug Administration rule calling for cigarette packaging and advertising to feature graphic images like corpses and rotting lungs by Sept. 22, 2012. The companies asked the court Tuesday to delay the new requirement, arguing that it violates First Amendment protection of commercial speech and forces cigarette makers to spread the government's antismoking message. "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 First Amendment specialist representing the cigarette makers, in a statement to the press. The suit, led by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and Lorillard Tobacco Co., requests a temporary injunction until the lawsuit is resolved, reports the Los Angeles Times. Best Hospitals for Pulmonology Best Hospitals for Cardiology and Heart Surgery 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, U.S. News reported in 2008. 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 No. 1 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. In 2010, 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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