US cigarette packs to feature dead bodies

In a move to cut down even further on the number of smokers, latest US health measures will see cigarette packets adorned with one of nine new graphic and disturbing images, Yahoo! News reported on Wednesday June 22nd.

The number of regular smokers in the US has dropped dramatically since the 1970s, as a wave of laws passed in many states has seen them increasingly marginalised.
Figures have halved since the 1970s but have tended to plateau over recent years, with around 20 percent of the population still smoking on a regular basis.
The harsh images will be coupled with non-nonsense phrases such as "smoking can kill you," and "cigarettes cause cancer."

Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, has defended the new campaign: "These labels are frank, honest and powerful depictions of the health risks of smoking and they will help encourage smokers to quit, and prevent children from smoking."
Despite the intense anti-smoking culture which has developed in the US over the last decades, smoking is still the single biggest cause of premature death in the country with around 440,000 people dying every year from tobacco-related diseases.
New legislation coming into force in the UK in 2012 will mean shops will not be allowed to put tobacco on display.