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It all started in April of 1998 when Action on Smoking and Health filed a legal petition asking the Federal Trade Commission [FTC] to require cigarette-like health warnings on cigars in light of new evidence that cigar smoking was as dangerous as cigarette smoking, and that cigar smoking was becoming increasing popular with children.

Yesterday, the FTC announced that it had coerced the industry into agreeing to provide health warnings on cigars.  Below is a brief chronology of how this victory was achieved:

APRIL 1998: ASH files legal petition with the FTC asking it to require health warnings; see: ASH Seeks Cigar Warnings - YOU Can Help [04/13/98] to see a copy of the legal petition.  Shortly thereafter, as reported by the News&Observer, the FTC agrees to carefully consider and publicize ASH's petition; see:  FTC to Publicize ASH's Cigar Labeling Petition [04/22/98]

FEBRUARY 1999:  ASH's requests for support for its FTC petition bears fruit when both U.S. Surgeon General Satcher and the Department of Health and Human Services [HHS] both strongly recommend health warning labels on cigars; see:  ASH VICTORY: Satcher Backs Cigar Warnings [02/27/99]

JULY 1999:   As a result of continuing pressure from ASH, and a request from the National Cancer Institute [a part of HHS], bills are introduced into both houses of Congress to require health warnings on cigars; see:  ASH Action Leads to Two Cigar-Health-Warning Bills [07/31/99]  Congress then directed that FTC to develop uniform federal warnings labels.

OCTOBER 1999: Pressure for health warnings on cigars continues to mount, and California becomes the first state to require it by law; see: Cigars Get New Warning Labels in CA [10/11/99]  This was a crucial development, since the cigar industry cited its concern about possibly conflicting state labeling requirements, as one of the major reasons its agreed to provide health warnings.

Now, finally, the FTC has announced that the warnings will soon begin appearing.  Below are excerpts from an article describing this victory.  To read the official FTC press release, click here: Required Disclosure of Cigar Health Risks

Excerpts from: Cigars to Get Health Labels

by Caroline E. Mayer, Washington Post  [06/27/00]

Cigars, whose increasing popularity as an affordable luxury item has alarmed public health officials, will soon carry federal labels warning of their health risks.

The nation's largest cigar companies, accounting for 95 percent of the cigars sold in the United States, have agreed to include the labels on packaging and in advertising, the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Surgeon General announced yesterday.

Such labels have long been required on cigarettes and chewing tobacco, and California state warnings are carried on cigars sold there. But this is the first time federal authorities have pressed for labels on all cigars. The new cigar labels will be bigger and bolder than those now found on the sides of cigarette packages.

"This is a significant advancement in our nation's continuing public health battle against tobacco," Surgeon General David Satcher said at a news conference. The warnings, he added, close "a dangerous loophole."

The failure to include warnings gave the impression that cigars were a harmless alternative to cigarettes, Satcher said. But, he said, repeated studies have shown "there are no safe forms of tobacco."

A 1998 report by the National Cancer Institute found, for example, that regular cigar smoking, like the use of other tobacco products, can cause several forms of cancer. Although the risk depends on how many cigars a person smokes, NCI found that cigar smoking can cause cancers of the mouth, esophagus, larynx and lungs.

FTC Chairman Robert Pitofsky said his agency has the power to require warning labels because the failure to disclose health risks is a deceptive and unfair business practice. "To sell a product where there is a serious health hazard and not disclose that fact is deceptive and unfair," he said.

Pitofsky said he expects the new labels to be in use within seven months. Agency officials said they will now turn their attention to pipe tobacco and may also require warning labels for that product.

Congress has required health warning labels on cigarettes since the mid-1960s and on chewing tobacco since the mid-1980s. The risk of cigar smoke had never been considered seriously until a few years ago because cigar consumption had been dropping steadily and dramatically. Between 1973 and 1993, cigar sales decreased by 70 percent, from 11.2 billion cigars to 3.4 billion. But starting in 1993, sales began to soar, climbing by 52 percent to 6 billion cigars last year as the economy prospered and the stogie became synonymous with the good life.

Particularly alarming to federal health officials was the sharp increase in cigar smoking among young adults. One study showed 12.5 percent of men 18 to 24 smoked cigars in 1995, up from 4 percent in 1990. Among women, who now account for about 2 percent of cigar smokers, the most frequent smokers were 18 to 25.

The NCI report prompted the FTC last summer to ask Congress to enact legislation placing the same advertising and labeling restrictions on cigars that are now on cigarettes--including a ban on television and radio ads. In November, Congress responded by directing the FTC to develop uniform federal warning labels. Yesterday, Pitofsky said the agency would still like to see Congress enact a ban on broadcast ads.

The new cigar warning labels will be on the front, rather than the side, of packages, or on both the inside and outside of cigar boxes, and will appear in larger black-on-white print than the cigarette warnings.

And for the first time, one of the five required surgeon general warnings to be rotated among the packages and advertisements will note the environmental risks of smoking by stating: "Tobacco smoke increases the risk of lung cancer and heart disease, even in nonsmokers."