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.