The New Zealand government is considering a plan to require graphic images of rotten teeth, throat cancers, and other consequences of smoking on cigarette packs, the New Zealand Herald reported May 10.

The proposal was made by Associate Health Minister Damien O'Connor, who said the labels should appear on all cigarette, cigar, cigarillo, and loose-tobacco packs. "We signed up to the (World Health Organization) framework on tobacco control and we locked ourselves into a process that lays out some good moves towards harm reduction and ultimately the reduction in smoking from tobacco," he said.

The photos would cover more than half of the tobacco packages.

British and American Tobacco (BAT) spokesman Carrick Graham said that, "Putting graphic images on packs is not going to change things at all. They will just fade into the background." But O'Connor said the pictures would be more effective than the current written warnings.

"The information and evidence is that young people in particular do look at these pictorial warnings. They take the messages on board and while they may not immediately change their behavior and stop smoking, over time we believe that they do take those messages on board," he said.