Michael Bloomberg is the mayor of New York City and, if there were such a title, the Public Health Mayor.

He wants to reduce or prevent smoking in New York with a regulation which requires sellers to display vivid pictures of the effects of smoking.

Here is the best part. The regulation mandates that these posters be placed near the point where a customer would buy a pack of cigarettes.

That Mike Bloomberg may finally have found a way to drive home what tobacco does to smokers’ bodies. The stores say that people have left without buying anything after seeing them.

In response, three tobacco companies and assorted affected trade groups (sellers of cigarettes) have filed suit to stop this.

Once again, Big Tobacco is singing its favorite hymn, “Give Me That Old First Amendment.”

The First Amendment, which covers free speech, is where Big Tobacco goes almost every time it is challenged.

This AP story says that lawsuit has labeled the poster pictures as “gross.”

A decayed tooth. Damaged brain. Damaged lung. (The last one has been seen before in other campaigns.)

Here are some questions which will need to be answered in the lawsuit, one way or another.

• Is what the posters say true? Yes. There is a vast amount of medical research to prove it.  New York City is not misrepresenting facts.

• Are the images accurate? Yes. Accurate enough to be called “gross” in a lawsuit. The brain and lung photographs would be ones which come from autopsies—no other way to get those.

• Does the city, through a regulation, have less of a right to state its case to the public than Big Tobacco? The plaintiffs says it does have less of a right. Only the federal government can provide warnings of this kind.

• The city expects to prevail, the full story says.

• Does the amendment allow for the city to demand that a store which sells many food and beverage items to post these pictures where all customers see them? The First Amendment is not about preventing harm to commerce. Not just smokers? Interesting question. Would someone buying celery leave a store because of a decayed tooth poster?  Flee the yogurt section?

AP

“The tobacco industry wants to snuff out a New York City regulation requiring cigarette retailers to post blunt warnings about the dangers of smoking.

“Cigarette giants Lorillard, Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds filed a lawsuit Wednesday in federal court challenging the legality of a new city health department rule that forced about 11,500 tobacco sellers to hang anti-smoking posters near their cash registers.

“The suit, filed in conjunction with trade groups representing convenience store owners and gas stations, said compelling the shops to hang the signs violates the First Amendment.”

Source: AP, June 4, 2010