Obama Criticizes Big Tobacco for Fighting Graphic Warnings

USA President Barack Obama who recently declared that he is tobacco-free after a usual medical checkup – has tough words for cigarette manufacturers. Particular cigarette companies, he states in a new White House web video, are struggling new graphic health warnings as “they do not want to recognize the consequences of their use.” The video comes on the occasion of the 36th “Great American Smokeout” conducted by the American Cancer Society. Obama states that country has demonstrating positive results in decreasing the number of Americans who smoke, but also underlines that 46 million are still addicted to this habit. “The fact is, quitting smoking is a very difficult process,” he says. “Believe me, I know it.” Obama has won the habit thanks to chewing nicotine gums, and his recent medical report, presented on October 31, announced that he is tobacco-free.

“Smoking continues to be the main cause of preventable deaths in USA,” president says in his video. It is a well know fact that the best way to prevent to the severe diseases that come with smoking is to stop young people from lighting up. In 2009, Obama passed legislation in order to keep youngsters from smoking. In June, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) adopted new graphic warning labels that cigarette producers would have to place on the top half of cigarette packages. Some of the warnings are rather graphic and include horrific pictures of a man exhaling cigarette smoke through a tracheotomy hole in his throat, diseased lungs and teeth and the corpse of a dead smoker.

Such cigarette manufacturers as R.J. Reynolds Tobacco and Lorillard Tobacco sued the FDA in court in order to cease the warnings, declaring that the labels go to far from fact-based graphic labels to anti-smoking advocacy. Altria Group Inc., holding company of Marlboro producer Philip Morris USA, is not in the lawsuit.