This week, American health officials released nine graphic warning labels for cigarette packs. The move puts the United States in the company of nearly 40 other countries that have already adopted pictorial warnings on cigarettes.

From graphic photos of face cancer in Thailand to skulls on cigarette packs in Romania, cigarette packs around the world vividly warn of the perils of smoking. To see the images, compiled by the University of Waterloo’s Tobacco Labelling Resource Centre, watch the slide show...

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/24/pictures-to-warn-the-world-about-smoking/

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Meanwhile the "nanny state" is turning up at the gap...

A FENCE built to deter jumpers at the infamous suicide spot The Gap could be climbed with ease by ''people in a desperate situation'', warns the woman who campaigned for it.

Dianne Gaddin lost her daughter Tracy at The Gap 5½ years ago and has since spent years lobbying for new safety measures along the rugged stretch of Sydney coastline.

But the 1.3-metre-high fence, part of a $2.2-million package that includes closed-circuit television cameras, emergency telephones, lighting and signs, is marginally higher than the old barrier and replaces it only at the northern and southern tips of The Gap. The two spots are the main viewing areas for sightseers. They also attract the majority of suicides.

''I really support Woollahra Council for taking steps to address this issue,'' Mrs Gaddin told The Sun-Herald. ''But looking at that fence, I think it isn't high enough. I told them that - that people in a desperate situation can get over it. They said they didn't want to block the view.''

Mrs Gaddin had proposed building a taller perspex barrier, but says she was told by council officers that it would not survive the salty ocean air.

Gus: anyone knows that anyone who wants to jump, a high fence isn't going to stop them... It's all in the mind... The first step to stop people killing themselves needs to address the situations, the misunderstandings, the depression and the distress that leads to the want of committing suicide. Smoking is a bit bit like committing suicide, slowly... with a 50/50 chance of dying early, around the age of 65 and possibly a 30/70 chance of dying before 40... With passive smoking, smokers also take other people jumping with them... or leave them with chronic bronchitis, like they did to me...

Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she won't be intimidated by big tobacco after Philip Morris launched legal action to try to force the government to back down on introducing plain packaging for cigarettes.

Ms Gillard said the government was confident it could deliver its reforms and that they would make a difference to the number of people who smoke.

"We're not going to be intimidated by big tobacco's tactics, whether they're political tactics, whether they're public affairs kind of tactics out in the community or whether they're legal tactics," she told ABC radio.