Cigarettes with health warnings printed directly on them are now being sold in parts of Canada, making it the first country to adopt such a measure in the ongoing bid to curb smoking rates.
Manufacturers are required, by tomorrow, to ensure that warnings such as "Poison in every puff" and "Tobacco smoke harms children" are printed on individual cigarettes.
Retailers will have to carry labelled cigarettes only by the end of July.
The campaign features six different messages that can appear on smokes, including warnings about how the habit can lead to conditions including cancer, impotence and organ damage.
Rob Cunningham of the Canadian Cancer Society says he's thrilled to see the unprecedented warnings on cigarettes, and he's hoping they will help people stop smoking or keep from starting in the first place.
Canada was also the first country to require graphic pictorial warnings on cigarette packages in 2001, before most of the package had to be covered with them in 2012.
Doctor Peter Selby, head of the Nicotine Dependence Clinic at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, says about 10 per cent of Canadians smoke, but the country's strategies could help reach the goal of less than five per cent by 2035.
Selby says the warnings literally spell out the many harms associated with cigarettes and he hopes they'll raise awareness among smokers.