Smokers in Canada are facing some of the world's hardest-hitting health warnings on tobacco products. Canadian cigarette packets will now carry health warnings including colour photographs of diseased internal organs damaged by smoking.
Government officials say the blunt messages are necessary to help improve public health.
The photos of body parts removed during post mortem examinations include a lung with cancer, a diseased heart and a brain that has suffered a stroke. Another warning depicts a drooping cigarette accompanied by a message about tobacco-related impotence. The visual impact of the images will be helped by their size. If smokers are not deterred by the image on the outside and open the packet, they will see more detailed written health information on the inside. There are also new, less hard-hitting warnings for cigars, and pipe and chewing tobacco.