Cigarette packaging is about to get gruesome. New warning labels, with photos that look like they've been cribbed from horror flicks and TV melodramas, are being mandated by the Food and Drug Administration and will begin turning smokers' stomachs next year.
Think autopsy photos, diseased tissue and a woman sobbing over the loss of a loved one.
"These graphical warnings bring Americans face to face with tobacco-related disease on every cigarette package and advertisement," says the FDA website.
"Beginning September 2012, FDA will require larger, more prominent cigarette health warnings on all cigarette packaging and advertisements in the United States," the site says. "These warnings mark the first change in cigarette warnings in more than 25 years and are a significant advancement in communicating the dangers of smoking."
The government agency predicts the new labels will "have a significant public health impact by decreasing the number of smokers, resulting in lives saved, increased life expectancy, and lower medical costs."
Get a look at the final artwork, which contains a lot less comic book imagery than the initial batch of labels proposed last year, in the gallery above.
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