Tobacco companies sue government over warning labels

These images provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, June 21, 2011, show two of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012.
These images provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday, June 21, 2011, show two of nine new warning labels cigarette makers will have to use by the fall of 2012.

— Tobacco companies want a judge to put a stop to new graphic cigarette labels that include the sewn-up corpse of a smoker and pictures of diseased lungs, saying they unfairly urge adults to shun their legal products and will cost millions to produce.

Four of the five largest U.S. tobacco companies sued the federal government Tuesday in federal court in Washington, saying the warnings violate their free speech rights.

The companies, led by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Lorillard Tobacco Co., said the warnings no longer simply convey facts to allow people to make a decision on whether to smoke. They instead force them to put government anti-smoking advocacy more prominently on their packs than their own brands, the companies say.

The FDA refused to comment, saying the agency does not discuss pending litigation.

Read tomorrow's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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