Coloradans will soon see commercials warning about the dangers of using tobacco products.
The tobacco industry will start running the ads this week in Colorado, as Colorado Public Radio reports, due to an 11-year-old court ruling that found tobacco companies had misled the public about the dangers of cigarettes.
The case involved the companies Altria, its Philip Morris USA subsidiary, and R.J. Reynolds, which a spokesman with the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network said are required to run ads five times a week for the next year, making a total of 260 TV ad spots warning about the dangers of tobacco use.
The spots don’t hold back either, with voiceover statements saying things like “More people die every year from smoking than from murder, AIDS, suicide, drugs, car crashes and alcohol, combined.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control, cigarette smoking has declined considerably among U.S. adults over several decades, with just over 15 percent using cigarettes last year.
