Tobacco Documents Online

Page 44 Hi®Q0.77J045 NEWS Florence, South Carolina June 26, 1964 The Tobacco Label Ruling We are aot among those who would discount whatever danger esists in the use of cigarettes. The Surgeon General's rep^rt links them de8- nitely with ce.lain health hazards. We are not qualified to argue with such evidence. But we support the position that f u r t h e r research is needed, first, to rule out the objec- tions to the Surgeon General's find- ings and the methods used to arrive at them, and, second. if the findings can be substantiated scientifically, to Isolate and breed out the factors, if possible, which constitute the dan- ger. In the meantime. we make the fol- lowing observations about the ruling by the Federal Trade Commission requiring all cigarette labels and ad• vertising to warn that smoking "may cause death from cancer and other diseases." , ]. That the labeling will haidly make Americans more widely aware than now that a link has been estab- lished between smoking and health by the Surgeon General's report. Nor will it make theip any less aware that the link has been seriously chal- lenged in many circles. it may, how- e%er, make the public more intense- ly auarc of the link. if any. 2. since announcement of the Sur- geou General's report, there have been no serious consequences to the tobacco industry, although immedi- ate reaction was to lessen cigarette consumption. Once the initial impact passed, near normal sales returned. 3. If the FTC's label ruling is to stand, then let the commission also require thut salc and advertising of alcoholic beverages be labeled to warn that drinking "may cause death, lead to broken lives. broken homex. mental and physical illness. moral and spiritual breakdown, and a complete waste of one's human and material resources." No Surgeon General's study is needed to prove the accuracy of these possible consequences from the use of alcoholic beverages. The e%•f- dence exists in every community, and in the investment of huge sums of money, both public and private, in treatment centers. In many circles, drinking is no less prevalent than smoking and far broader in its devastating conse- quences. Fairness requires that if one is labeled, the other should be. Other- wise, the Federal Trade Commission is open to the charge of raw, if not calculated, discrimination.