In many countries around the world governments and health organizations have been tightening the noose ever more around the already choking necks of average smokers.  By taxing the hell out of them and limiting smoking areas to under the floorboards of your house, smokers can scarcely relax with their favorite addiction.

Then we have the warning labels. Japanese cigarette packs have very minimal labels – for now – with some classy embossed printing.  Other countries such as Canada have been using graphic labels for quite some time.  They are rather unpleasant images of rotten teeth and people with tubes in their throat.

As bad as those images are they tend to lose their shock value quickly to the point that most smokers hardly notice them anymore.  Thailand, however, has taken the graphic label concept beyond unpleasant and into nightmare territory.

Thailand’s anti-smoking campaign kicked into full speed shortly after the turn of the millennium.  Their early foray into warning labels was frankly kind of weak.

▼ This one would actually make a cool album cover.

▼ I guess this means you’ll become Mama Fratelli.

Recently they’ve laid the pressure on more with a rather poignant anti-smoking commercial.

Makes you think, doesn’t it?

But health officials in Thailand didn’t stop there – not by a long shot. They gradually evolved their graphic labels into the hardcore gorefest that is the 2009-Present Thailand tobacco health warning label line-up.

Source: Himasoku (Japanese)
Pictures: Tobacco Labeling Resource Centre (English)

WARNING: The following pictures may not be good for your mental health. The first few are not so bad but they get more graphic as it goes. Scroll slowly.  If you have a low tolerance for images of disease and surgery I recommend clicking back now. However, If you’re thinking of stopping smoking these might just do the trick.

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▼ Definitely a sad image, but we’re just getting started.

▼ This image might be hard for people in some cultures to understand.  The hand on the right is dead and is being washed according to custom.

▼ Your standard “rotten mouth” image, the bread and butter of warning labels

▼ A couple hospitalized shots are here. A little more gritty than some I’ve seen.

▼ You’re now entering tumor country.

▼ And some oral cancer

▼ I was wondering how smoking did that to your foot – PVD

▼ I’ve seen a few people with tracheotomies in my day, but that’s the most disturbing one.

▼ And finally, this doesn’t make me think about tobacco… or anything… I just feel kinda woozy.