Warning Signs

"The surgeon general’s warnings are different on the sides of each pack. Mine says, 'Surgeon General Warning: Cigarette smoking may cause fetal injury or premature birth.' Hey, fuck it! Found my brand. Just don't get the ones that say lung cancer." - the great Bill Hicks

And now, smokers can do the same with the graphic images about to adorn smoking packages. Dead bodies, diseased lungs, and even a man on a ventilator will be the part of a new U.S. anti-smoking campaign. The change was part of a law that put the tobacco industry under the control of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November 2010, and the new labels must be on cigarette packages and in advertisements no later than September 2012.

For example, the packaging would say, "WARNING: Cigarettes are addictive," and then illustrated with a photograph of a man smoking a cigarette through a hole in his throat. Nice. Other messages point out the dangers of secondhand smoke to children, tobacco's causal link to fatal lung disease, cancer, strokes, heart disease and death. By the numbers, over 221,000 Americas will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2011, accounting for about 14% of all cancer cases, and 150,000 expected to die from lung cancer this year. So this is a good thing, right?

Fuck no.

According to Health and Human Services, the goal of the warnings is to stop children from starting to smoke and offer adults who want to quit some help. Well, does that need to be at the expense of everybody else who doesn't smoke who has to see these graphic advertisements? If I want to see rotting, gnarled, and ravaged body parts, I'll go to the internet when I want, not inadvertently from behind the counter at 7-11.

If you're still unaware of the health repercussions of smoking in 2011 then you should die - you're too stupid to live. It's a choice, and for those that make it, don't subject me to your second hand smoke. And the same goes for the government and their nasty images.