(CNN/WSYR-TV) -- Big tobacco companies can breathe a sigh of relief. The Food and Drug Administration has scrapped a series of graphic warning labels for cigarettes after deciding not to challenge a court ruling that said the shocking images violated free-speech protections.
CLICK HERE to see some of those graphic images. Some of them include a man exhaling smoke through a hole in his throat; a baby next to a cloud of smoke and diseased lungs next to healthy lungs.
Attorney General Eric Holder says the Food and Drug Administration will propose new labels, but that could take a few years.
According to the Centers for Disease Control the percentage of adult Americans who smoke has declined since 1965 from 42.4% to 18.9% in 2011.
The CDC says cigarette smoking is the leading cause of "preventable death" in the United States, killing about 443,000 people per year as of 2004.
