Altria’s Marlboro cigarettes sold at a store.Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesMajor cigarette companies will soon be required to post signs at retail locations warning of the health effects of smoking, the Justice Department announced.The order, set to go into effect on July 1, 2023, is the last in a broader series of court-ordered measures stemming from a 1999 lawsuit against cigarette companies, the department said in a release.The order requires defendants Altria, Philip Morris USA Inc., R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, and four cigarette brands owned by ITG Brands to display the signs for two years. Representatives for the companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.”Justice Department attorneys have worked diligently for over 20 years to hold accountable the tobacco companies that defrauded consumers about the health risks of smoking,” said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta in a statement.The retail signs will be “designed to be eye-catching” and will include warnings such as “Smoking cigarettes causes numerous diseases and on average 1,200 American deaths every day” and “The nicotine in cigarettes is highly addictive and that cigarettes have been designed to create and sustain addiction.”The order stems from lawsuit filed in 1999 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia by a coalition of anti-tobacco and public-health advocacy groups. It resulted in a ruling that the cigarette companies were defrauding consumers about …
