Scare tactics on smoking don't always work

Ten years ago, in settling the largest civil lawsuit in the US history, the tobacco industry agreed to pay the 50 states $246 billion, to be used in part to finance efforts to prevent smoking. The percentage of American adults who smoke has fallen since then to just over 20 percent from nearly 30 percent, but smoking is still the No 1 preventable cause of death in the United States, and smoking-related health care costs more than $167 billion a year.

To reduce this cost, the incoming Obama administration should abandon one anti-smoking strategy that is not working.

A key component of the Food and Drug Administration's approach to smoking prevention is to warn about health dangers: Smoking causes fatal lung cancer; smoking causes emphysema; smoking while pregnant causes birth defects.