File this one under truth is stranger than, well, it’s pretty strange. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the agency responsible for regulating cigarettes — yes, you read that correctly — has proposed some innovative mandates on cigarette packaging, intended to reduce tobacco consumption.
And, here they are:
- WARNING: Cigarettes are addictive.
WARNING: Tobacco smoke can harm your children.
WARNING: Cigarettes cause fatal lung disease.
WARNING: Cigarettes cause cancer.
WARNING: Cigarettes cause strokes and heart disease.
WARNING: Smoking during pregnancy can harm your baby.
WARNING: Smoking can kill you.
WARNING: Tobacco smoke causes fatal lung disease in nonsmokers.
WARNING: Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to your health.
There is a whole tortured history of how the agency responsible for approving new drugs is also the agency responsible for regulating the “safety” of cigarettes, but that’s probably for another day. For today commentary, the wise guys over at The Awl sum it up pretty nicely.
They’re all here: hole-in-the-throat guy, child at risk, toe-tag dude, skeletal cancer man, preemie, zipper-chest fella, weepy lady… it’s like a United Nations of tobacco victims.
Another place to file this is under “Health and Human Services” and its proposed tobacco strategy.