Smoking warnings - Scare tactics will help to save lives

Irish smokers are due to be bombarded with graphic images designed to scare the smoke out of them in the New Year.

Forty-two gruesome photographs are due to appear on cigarette packages in an effort to remind smokers of the dangers of the habit.

It has long been recognised that smoking tobacco kills. More than half a million people die in the EU each year as a result of smoking and it imposes an added cost of about €100bn on health services.