Any smoker in the western world under the age of 75 can fairly be told: “You were warned.” The scientific evidence about what cigarettes do to the human body was not just unambiguous but widely known by the early 1950s. Yet a policymaking cliché holds that any adults who still smoke (20 per cent in the US) do so because they have not been educated. It was in the name of education that the US Food and Drug Administration rolled out its new cigarette packet warning labels this week. They will supplement the usual warnings about how smoking causes cancer, heart disease, etc with shocking photos. The FDA argues that 213,000 people will be moved to quit smoking after they see the new labels next year.
西方世界任何一名年齡低於75歲的菸民都會受到警告。早在20世紀50年代初，有關香菸對人體影響的科學證據就已清楚明瞭，廣爲人知。然而，制定政策者仍迂腐地認爲，凡是仍在抽菸的成年人（在美國，菸民占人口的20%），都是因爲他們沒有受過相關的教育。美國食品和藥物管理局(FDA)在6月底宣佈推行新的香菸包裝警示標識，其名義就是教育菸民。包裝上除了抽菸會引發癌症、心臟病等疾病的常規警告，還將附上一些驚悚的圖片。按照FDA的說法，明年會有21.3萬人在看到標識後受到觸動，開始戒菸。