Health Warning Labels and the First Amendment: How Did We Get Here and What’s Next?

Date/Time
Date(s) - 10/04/2023
2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

In collaboration with the Communicating for Health Impact (CHI) Lab, the UNC Center for Media Law and Policy is pleased to offer a webinar titled, “Health Warning Labels and the First Amendment: How Did We Get Here and What’s Next?”

The purpose of the panel is to discuss the intersection of health warnings, product labeling, and the First Amendment. A timely and high-profile example is litigation surrounding the more-than-a-decade effort by the Food and Drug Administration to implement pictorial cigarette pack warnings nationwide in the US.  Tobacco companies assert that such warning labels violate the companies’ First Amendment rights against compelled speech.

The webinar will feature panelists with legal and research expertise in this area. Each panelist will have the opportunity to briefly share their work and perspectives on health warnings, product labeling, and the first amendment. The moderator will then pose questions to the panelists and there will be an opportunity for Q&A from the audience.

Panelists:

• Marissa Hall, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
• Jim Thrasher, PhD, Professor, Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina
• Sarah Sorscher, JD, MPH, Director of Regulatory Affairs, Center for Science in the Public Interest, Washington, DC
• Patti Zettler, JD, John W. Bricker Professor of Law, Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University

Event Moderator:
Seth Noar, PhD, James Howard and Hallie McLean Parker Distinguished Professor;
Director, Communicating for Health Impact (CHI) lab, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

This event is open to the public, and the webinar registration is available here: https://go.unc.edu/warning.  Webinar ID: 916 3045 2478. Students can earn Campus Life Experience (CLE) credit.

This is just one of many events we are hosting on First Amendment Day!

Video from the event is available here: