Cigarette packets in Britain to carry horror pics

Cigarettes smokers in Britain will in future be pressurised even further to kick the bad habit by graphic health warnings on cigarette packets.

From September next year graphic images of the nasty health consequences of smoking are to be shown on all packets of cigarettes sold in Britain.

Health secretary, Alan Johnson announced yesterday that for other tobacco products the deadline is September 2009.

The pictures will include a dead man on a steel mortuary table, patients wearing oxygen masks in hospital, a baby in an incubator and a man with a large tumour below his chin with the words "smoking can cause a slow and painful death".

Mr Johnson says the aim was to raise awareness, help smokers who want to quit and further reduce smoking-related illnesses.

Johnson says the picture warnings are the next vital step in reducing the number of people who smoke as smoking remains the number one cause of ill health and early death.

He says while progress has been made with stark written warnings on packs, the graphic warnings together with the introduction of the smoke-free law last month and plans to raise the legal age of sale for tobacco products, will potentially save thousands of lives.

A series of 15 images have been chosen following market research, public consultation and a vote on the most effective warnings.

Smoking accounts for 85% of lung cancers and each year the disease causes 33,500 deaths in the UK.

Smoking-related diseases claim an estimated 438,000 American lives each year, including those affected indirectly, such as babies born prematurely due to prenatal maternal smoking and victims of secondhand exposure to tobacco's carcinogens.

Britain's chief medical officer, Sir Liam Donaldson, says the move will help promote better awareness of the damage smoking does, and is an essential step towards reducing the number who start smoking.

The move follows the success of a similar scheme in Canada, where 91 per cent reported having seen the warnings and more than half of smokers said they smoked less around other people.

Canada was the first country to put pictures on cigarette packets and they are now also used in Singapore and Brazil.

Cancer Research UK, says there is international evidence which shows that graphic picture warnings lead to greater awareness of the risks associated with smoking and help encourage people to cut down or quit.

The smokers' lobby group Forest, described the initiative as the "victimisation" of smokers and says the same argument could apply for placing graphic images on bottles of alcohol.

Forest says the government is bullying smokers simply because they can get away with it.

Cigarette smoking has been identified as the most important source of preventable morbidity and premature mortality worldwide.