New signs warning of tobacco’s dangers now required at cigarette retailers

As of July 1, U.S. tobacco companies Philip Morris USA and R.J. Reynolds were required to begin posting signs at about 220,000 US retail stores that sell cigarettes. The signs will be installed near cigarette displays in these stores between July 1 and September 30 and must be displayed until June 30, 2025. The signs are the final step in implementing the “corrective statements” the tobacco companies were first ordered to make in 2006, when a federal judge ruled that the companies violated civil racketeering laws and lied to the public for decades about the health risks and addictiveness of cigarettes and their marketing to children. Read a statement by the American Cancer Society, the Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund, and other public-health intervenors in the case. See examples below.