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Officials Mull State Park Smoking Ban Pilot

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Visitors’ complaints about cigarette butts on lakes and beaches have the Bureau of State Parks considering a smoking ban pilot program.  “We have swimming beaches at many of our beautiful state parks with our lakes, and often you have these cigarette butts washing up.  You have cigarette butts in the sand,” explains Department of Conservation and Natural Resources spokesman Terry Brady.

“We pride ourselves in trying to keep these swimming beaches clean of both goose excrement and cigarette butts,” Brady says.  However, with parks personnel already stretched thin, the manpower used to pick up after some smokers could be better used elsewhere.

Brady notes that visitors’ concerns are driving consideration of the pilot, and that public sentiment will ultimately decide whether any trial run becomes permanent or statewide.

None of Pennsylvania’s 120 state parks has been identified as a smoking ban pilot site yet, and Brady tells Radio PA there’s no timetable for implementation.  “It remains to be seen where this will go, but certainly our Bureau of State Parks will look into it.”

Food and Drug Administration Unveils New Cigarette Warning Labels

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The Food and Drug Administration has unveiled nine new cigarette warning labels. The warnings will take up the top 50% of a pack of cigarettes and 20% of an advertisement for cigarettes.  They include graphic images of diseases related to smoking, such as lung disease and oral cancer. Tobacco companies have until September 2012 to comply.

Dr. Lawrence Deyton, Director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, says the warning labels have not changed in 25 years.  He says the average smoker no longer realizes that there’s a health warning on a pack of cigarettes.  He says scientific literature shows inclusion of a graphic image and a specific warning does help smokers increase their personal knowledge about their risk.

Dr. Deyton says for decades, the rates of smoking had been declining, but in the 7- 8 years, it has leveled off to 20%.  He says 1 in 5 high school kids smoke cigarettes.  The new labels are required as part of a law passed by Congress,  the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Control Act.

Dr. Deyton says the new warnings convey the very personal and true risk of cigarette smoking.

He says the FDA started with 36 images and tested them extensively to determine which had the most impact.  He says they considered whether it educated the person looking at it, whether the person could recall the image and whether it changed the viewer’s beliefs about their own health risk and their intent to quit, or not to start smoking.

He says the warning also includes the 1-800-Quit-Now number, the national helpline. He says when a smoker picks up a pack with the new labels, there’s a resource they can act on instantly to get the help they need to stop smoking.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says tobacco use is a leading cause of premature and preventable death in the United States.