Lawmakers Want Ingredients List, Stronger Warning On Tobacco

Anti-smoking lawmakers want to force tobacco companies to disclose all the ingredients in cigarettes and print bigger, starker warnings on each pack.

“We’re about to declare war on tobacco and death,” Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., said Tuesday. “We’re going to force the tobacco companies to tell us the truth.”

“I feel confident in informing the bosses of Big Tobacco that your license to kill will soon be terminated, and it will be nonrenewable,” said Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., lead sponsor of the bill in the House.

The lawmakers want an ingredients list in each pack of cigarettes and with cigars, pipe and smokeless tobacco to let smokers see all 599 ingredients, including about 43 carcinogens.

The anti-smoking bill would require larger warnings printed in English and Spanish on the front and back of packs. They would include: “Warning: Cigarettes Kill” and “Warning: Cigarettes Are Addictive.”