Tobacco Documents Online

Page 54 Ni®0033055 CIT= ADVEATIS>sli Auburn, Nev York Ame 24, 1964 The Cigaretfe Ruling The Federal Trade Commission apparently has re- solved an inner government dispute over the right to regulate the advertising and labeling of cigarettes. The FTC issued a rule today requiring that by next year all cigarette labels and advertising inform the public "that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health and may cause death from cancer and other diseases." The announcement carne at a House Commerce Cotrnnittee hearing on smoking and health at which Surgeon General Luther L Terry testified that the De- partment of Health, Education and Welfare believes more legislation would be required before any federal rules could be imposed, and that the Food and Drug Admin- istration should have the authority to require cigarette manufacturers to put health warning labels on packs and cartotS. But the FTC's chairman, Paul Rand Dixon, com- mendabiy has decided that the bickering should end and that the public's welfare should come first. Most persons will agree with the FTC's contention tliat it is an unfair and deceptive practice for a manufacturer "to fail to dis- close, dearly and prominently, in all advertising and on every pack, box, carton or other container in which cigarettes are sold" that sznnking is a health hazard. Hence, it shouldn't matter at all which government agency should have the responsibility of enforcing the ruling. The important thing is that the buyers of cigar- ettes should be fully aware of the risks involved in smoking. There has been too much procrastination already. The U.S. Public Health Service itself issued a statement seven years ago warning that "The weight of the evidence is Increasingly pointing in one direction: that excessive smoking is one of the causative factors in lung zancer." DAY'DDN DAILY NENS Dayton, Ohio Jtiute 26, 19E4 FTC's Ad Rule 111e Federal Trade commission's rule that beginning next year all cigarette labels and advertising shall contain a warning that smoking is dangerous to health is a good move. It would have been better if the rommisstnit specified the exact language to be used by cigarette manufacturers in their warnings. This omission leaves the door ajar for clever ad men who could verbally pooh-pooh the eurgeon general's wrdely publicized and docu- mented study that links cigarette emoking with cancer and other diseases. With the provision that the commission will enterlain motions before May 1, 1965 to post- pone the rule's effective date or to cancrl. if altogether. the tobacco industry hab a fair opportunity to make its own vnluntaiy ad- verttsing controls stick. Naturally, the tobacco Industry doesn't want to cut its own throat-not even in the Interest of the nation's. It already has pounced on the rulfng as unfair, unwise and unlawful--and possibly could win some sup- port through litigation. In any event. the FTC has made a start. The government has a deep responsibility to 19" million Americans to protecl them from the poisonous effects of smoking. One way or another, through the tobacco industry's honesty with the smoking menace, through the FTC ruling (court batUea or no), or fhtally through special action by (bngress, the pubUc must be suffidently informed that cigarettes are more than just retreshing, niid and filter-tipped.