These stomach-turning photos will soon be stamped on every pack of cigarettes in India

Editor's note: This articles contains graphic images that some readers might find upsetting.

India has one of the worst smoking problems in the world.

In the country of 1.26 billion people, 275 million use tobacco, including one-third of all adults and nearly 50 percent of men. Around the world, 5 million people die each year from tobacco-related illnesses. One million of them live in India.

It's a good thing the Indian government is on it. Harsh Vardhan, the health minister, announced last week that his agency would be rolling out a new anti-smoking campaign that takes a proven tactic in use around the world — graphic warning labels — and ramps up everything about it. The labels will be bigger and more horrifying than any tobacco warning label you've ever seen, labels that make ones like this from the United Kingdom look extremely tame by comparison.

British warning label, 2008.

Beginning on April 1, 2015, every cigarette pack will feature a graphic — like, REALLY graphic — warning label that must cover at least 85 percent of the pack's surface. The size requirement puts India and Thailand in a tie for largest tobacco warning labels, with Australia trailing close behind at 82.5 percent. When it comes to the graphic nature of the images, there's less competition. India's health ministry has found a set of photos that only the most intestinally fortified smoker could look past.

It's hard to know precisely whether graphic warning labels lead to decreased smoking but all signs suggest they do. The World Health Organization (WHO), for example, considers them effective. A literature review published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization cited psychological studies that used surveys and interviews to measure smokers' responses to the labels and concluded:

Taken as a whole, the research on pictorial warnings show that they are: (i) more likely to be noticed than text-only warning labels; (ii) more effective for educating smokers about the health risks of smoking and for increasing smokers’ thoughts about the health risks;  and (iii) associated with increased motivation to quit smoking.

Vardhan embraced that logic.

“Graphic health warnings using a mixture of pictures and words are part and parcel of every country’s policy on cigarette marketing," he explained. "Many studies have established that the inclusion of larger and more noticeable health warnings on packages significantly impact life expectancy rates and lead to savings on medical costs." 

The new labels are just the latest of several initiatives directed at smoking in India. Tobacco advertisements are now illegal, and since 2008, a law has criminalized smoking in public places. That law is widely ignored, though. Maybe cigarettes packs stamped with gruesome, NSFW images will make people feel less comfortable about lighting up in company…

Vardhan, a practicing ear, nose, and throat surgeon, has seen mouth and throat cancer up close, and now, so will Indians.

"Tobacco means only death," he said. 

Here are the uncensored labels. Proceed at your own risk.

Feel like having a smoke? Didn't think so.

h/t Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.