June 24, 1964 - The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it would require cigarette packages to carry a warning that cigarette smoking is dangerous to health.
The statement will be required on all packs, boxes, and cartons of cigarettes sold, beginning Jan. 1, 1965.
The exact language of the cautionary statement will be left up to cigarette manufacturers. They will be required to state “clearly and prominently” that cigarette smoking “may cause death from cancer and other diseases.”
A similar warning will be required in all cigarette advertising beginning July 1, 1965, under the terms of a regulation issued today by the commission.
The commission’s decision that the absence of a health warning on cigarette labels was misleading was based on the findings of a special committee formed by the Surgeon General of the Public Health Service, Luther Terry.
The committee, after reviewing many studies of smoking and health made in recent years, concluded that “smoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance in the United States to warrant appropriate remedial action.”
The tobacco industry reserved comment today on the FTC ruling on cigarette hazards. Prices of tobacco issues took moderate to sharp losses today on the New York Stock Exchange. Liggett & Myers and Philip Morris were hardest hit.
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