The images will be placed on all cigarette packets replacing the worded warnings

The government of the United Kingdom is finally waking up to the fact that by sponsoring public health campaigns to prevent people from smoking actually pays dividends. The ban on smoking in public places has been enforced now for over a year and has contributed to large numbers of people finally quitting their smoking habit.

The new initiative from the government is a hard hitting campaign which will show shocking and gruesome images of the health dangers of smoking such as cancerous tumours and rotting gums. The images will be placed on all cigarette packets replacing the worded warnings that have been around for a number of years now.

Health experts say while the verbal warnings such as "Smoking Kills" are effective research shows that in time the impact is lessened and using the visual images will serve to remind smokers of the risk of that they are putting their health in. There are 10 million smokers in the United Kingdom at present and it is estimated that the deadly habit kills as many as 150,000 people every year.

Other images which will be used to deglamorise smoking are one of a drooping cigarette which mimics male sexual impotence which is a known side effect of smoking, and also visual images of black and tar stained lungs.

Canada claims to be the first nation to put shocking images of smoking related illnesses on cigarette packets, followed closely by the State of New York in America. In the European Union, Belgium and Romania print images on their cigarette packets but not on all tobacco products such as cigars and hand-rolled tobacco.

The Department of Health said that the United Kingdom will be printing the images on all tobacco products when the initiative is launched next month.