Cigarette packs will carry new graphic warnings of smoking risks

Among the other images smokers will see: a corpse in a morgue, rotting lungs and a body cut open during surgery. Graphic pictures of rotting teeth and throat cancer are to appear on cigarette packs to illustrate the health risks of smoking.

The photos will appear on the back of packs with a written health warning.

The images replace the previous warnings introduced in January 2003, although the messages “Smoking seriously harms you and others around you” and “Smoking kills” will continue to appear on the front of packs. The Department of Health said new figures showed written warnings had motivated more than 90,000 smokers to call the NHS Smoking Helpline.

But, smoking is still the biggest killer in England where it is the reason of the premature death of more than 87,000 people each year. The photos are considered to be more effective than text, and research suggested that warnings should be changed from time to time to maintain their effectiveness.

The smokers’ lobby group Forest criticized the new warnings as “gratuitously offensive” and “unnecessarily intrusive”. Forest director Simon Clark said: “We support measures that educate people about the health risks of smoking, but these pictures are designed not just to educate but to shock and coerce people to give up a legal product. They are unnecessarily intrusive, gratuitously offensive, and yet another example of smokers being singled out for special attention.”