Tobacco "Corrective Statements" Posted in Retail Locations
If you’ve noticed new signs near tobacco displays in local stores recently, these “corrective statements” are a long-awaited outcome of a 2006 federal court ruling that found tobacco companies misled customers about the harm and addictiveness of smoking.
An example of one of the signs tobacco companies are required to post for the next 21 months at retail locations.
The signs are required to be posted at about 200,000 retail locations nationwide that have merchandising agreements with the tobacco companies involved in the litigation. (Another 100,000 tobacco retailers do not have such agreements and aren’t required to post the signs.) Retailers had until Oct. 1 to post the signs, which must stay up for 21 months.
These signs are the final remedies called for by the 2006 ruling. In 2017, the tobacco companies were required to post the statements in newspaper advertisements, on TV spots, on cigarette packages, and on their websites and social media pages.
The judge ruled the companies “have marketed and sold their lethal product with zeal, with deception, with a single-minded focus on their financial success, and without regard for the human tragedy or social costs that success exacted.”
The judge found the companies had a “fifty-year history of deceiving smokers, potential smokers, and the American public about the hazards of smoking and second hand smoke, and the addictiveness of nicotine.”
The signage warns of the harms of smoking, not just for smokers but also for people who inhale secondhand smoke.
It also found the companies intentionally marketed to children but denied doing so. The ruling applies to tobacco companies Altria, Philip Morris USA Inc. and R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company as well as to four cigarette brands owned by ITG Brands LLC.
The ruling banned the use of purposely deceptive advertising terms like “low tar,” “light,” “mild” and “natural.”
The court ordered the posting of retail signs regarding the adverse health effects of smoking, how addictive it is, how “light” or “mild” and other labels did not have health benefits, how the industry manipulated cigarette design and composition to ensure optimum nicotine delivery, and how dangerous secondhand smoke is.
While the signs acknowledge the difficulty of quitting such an addictive product, it can be done. In fact, there are more former smokers in America than current smokers.
North Central Public Health District and Hood River Prevention Department now offer free smoking/vaping cessation counseling to anyone of any age in Wasco, Sherman and Hood River counties. Also, free nicotine replacement therapies such as patches, gum and lozenges are available to anyone 18 and older.
To sign up for free counseling and patches/gum/lozenges, Wasco and Sherman residents can call 541-506-2609, email neitac@ncphd.org, or visit https://www.ncphd.org/tobacco-programs. In Hood River County, please call 541-387-6931, email Kelsey.rairigh@hoodrivercounty.gov, or visit https://www.hoodriverprevents.com/tobacco.
To read more about the court case please visit https://bit.ly/46803Qk.
(For more information, please contact North Central Public Health District at (541) 506-2600, visit us on the web at www.ncphd.org or find us on Facebook.)