It’s been more than seven years since the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act became law, directing the Food and Drug Administration to bolster warnings on tobacco labels and to create graphic warning images to be printed on cigarette packaging. Even though the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the tobacco industry’s challenge to these labels in 2013, they have yet to materialize. In an attempt to force the FDA’s hand, a coalition of doctors, public health advocates, and anti-smoking groups have filed a lawsuit against the government. [More]
warning labels
NYC’s Salt Warning Labels Set To Debut At Chain Restaurants This Week
By 11.30.15
Menus at New York City’s chain eateries will be getting a makeover this week, as the city’s rule requiring warning labels for particularly salty menu items goes into effect. [More]
Will The FDA Ever Get Around To New Warning Labels For Cigarettes?
By 2.18.15
In June 2009, the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act became law, directing the Food and Drug Administration to not only create larger health warnings, but to include graphic images in the labels. And when the U.S. Supreme Court shot down a tobacco-industry fight against these labels in April 2013, it was supposed to get the ball rolling again on these new warnings. But in the years since, there’s been no apparent movement on the matter and the FDA won’t say when, or even if, these Congressionally mandated labels will become a reality. [More]
California Lawmakers Kill Bill That Would’ve Been First To Require Warnings On Sugary Drinks
By 6.18.14
While health advocates and other opponents of sugary drinks like soda had high hopes for a California bill that would’ve become the first law requiring warning labels on such beverages, lawmakers in the State Assembly effectively killed that measure yesterday. [More]
Should Sodas & Sugary Drinks Carry Warning Labels Like Tobacco Products?
By 6.6.14
What if sodas and other sugary drinks came bearing warning labels about the risk of obesity and other health effects, not unlike tobacco products? That’s the idea one advocacy group is promoting, saying consumers should know “the truth” about those products and decide whether or not to drink them. [More]
New EU Warning Label: Emergency Contraceptives Less Effective In Women Weighing 165 Pounds Or More
By 11.25.13
It should be obvious that the dose of medication that works in one person doesn’t work in all people. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise for women this morning to learn that an emergency contraceptive pill identical to the one sold here in the US as Plan B will carry a new warning label in Europe cautioning women that it doesn’t work if they weigh too much. [More]
Supreme Court Agrees: Cigarette Warning Labels Don’t Violate Big Tobacco’s Free Speech
By 4.22.13
For the last several years, the tobacco industry has been fighting a federal law that requires, among other restrictions, cigarette manufacturers to place graphic warning labels on packaging. Big Tobacco may need to finally get with the program, now that the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the companies’ challenge to the law on the grounds that it violates their First Amendment rights. [More]
Judge: Graphic Cigarette Warning Labels Violate Right To Free Speech
By 2.29.12
Remember those graphic, sometimes gory, cigarette warning labels the FDA came up with? Well, a U.S. District Judge has sided with the tobacco companies and ruled that the warnings violate cigarette-makers’ right to free speech. [More]
Tobacco Companies Sue FDA Over New Warning Labels
By 8.17.11
In an effort to get the Food and Drug Administration to shut down its plans to slap graphic new warning labels on tobacco products, four large tobacco firms have sued the government. Big tobacco contends the labels will cost too much to print and will infringe on their rights to free speech. [More]
FDA Unveils New Tobacco Warning Labels For Teens To Laugh At While They Smoke
By 6.21.11
Last fall, the Food & Drug Administration announced they would be requiring tobacco packaging to carry larger and more graphic warning labels. And because our governmental agencies move like quicksilver, it only took about seven months for the FDA to finalize the nine images that will soon decorate your pack of Kools. [More]
Politician Wants Warning Labels On Video Games
By 1.27.11
A congressman figures that if warning labels are good enough for your cigarettes and bug spray, they’re also suitable for your video games. [More]
This Condom Warning Label Arouses Confusion
By 8.23.10
A reader bought this box of condoms from her local Safeway, and she says this sticker was underneath the outer packaging. People be freaky, but is there anyone who would want a raw chicken condom that you have to keep frozen until use? (Meh, probably.) [More]
Potentially Boozy Kombucha Drinks Drive Whole Foods Yank
By 6.18.10
Whole Foods has removed all kombucha drinks from its shelves over concerns that it might contain elevated levels of alcohol. The supermarket was worried that, to paraphrase the great poet J-Kwon, “errybody in the fermented culture club gettin’ tipsy.” What’s kombucha, you ask? And why does the process of making it remind me of a certain Capri Sun pouch? [More]
Is Your Hot Dog Trying To Kill You?
By 2.22.10
If you’re eating a hot dog, or thinking about eating a hot dog, you may want to know this. The American Academy of Pediatrics thinks your frankfurter is a choking hazard and it should be packaged with a warning label. They also want some brainpower invested in redesigning the tasty treats so as to make them less deadly. [More]
Caution: Product Warning May Cause Laughter
By 9.26.09
The combination of human stupidity and modern litigiousness has resulted in some fantastically funny product warning labels. MainStreet rounded up a few in their Ridiculously Funny Product Warning slide show. A few highlights:
