Tobacco Documents Online

Page 15 NT10033046 i t TRIBUNE La Crosee, Niaaoaein June 26, 1964 The Smoker Has Been Warned Already THE FEDERAL Trade Commis- sion (FTC) this week issued an or- der requiring all cigarette packages and advertising next year to warn Americans that smoking "may cause death from cancer and other dis- cases" and is dangerous to health. Smokers and non-smokers a 1 i k e must wonder exactly what the FTC hopes to accomplish with such an order. Certainly no American reader or listener escaped the report issued a few months ago by the surgeon gen- cral of the United States, Dr. Lu- ther Terry. Those findings were top- line news in every newspaper and ma6czine in the country. The TV networks carried special lengthy re- ports on the subject. FOR A FEW MONTHS, cigarette sates fell sharply. Many smokers tried pipes and ci- gars. There was a rush of new cig- arette brands, mostly with new filt- ci %, tu t he market. One brand now pi int.a the nicotine and tar content un the package. But in April (after a four-month drop of 7 per cent) cigarette ship- ments were up 4 per cent from April 'fi3. Just what does the FTC hope to achieve? Nicotine can be a poison. in the wrong amounts-but so are many useful drugs. Aspirin, taken in over- dos a, Is one of the commonest kill• ers of small children, who don't read the label. But tobacco or cigarettes as such are not called a poison or a dander- ous drug. If their use is to be regu- lated, it would seem the regulation should come from the Food and Drug Administration, as Dr. Terry had suggested only the day before the FTC ruling came nut. Thc right of the FTC to police fraudulent or misleading advertising is unquestioned, but that is another matter. And the cigarette industry itself is taking steps-dong overdue -to see that its advertising is not made particularly appealing to im- pressionable youngsters. TIHE POINT IS that cigarettes are a legal commodity. No one is propos- ing that their manufacture or use be prohibited. If every conceivable health dan- ger is to be plainly labeled as such, warnings might as well be required for coffee. tea, many cpices-and all dairy products. People must follow their own in- stincts and good sense, traits for which many federal regulators give them little credit. We doubt that warnings required on cigarette package labels will do much more to change the smoking habits of the nation than the sur- geon general's report did. The FTC is getting out of its depth on this one.