[Top: The label on this pack of a cigarette pack sold in Malaysia comes with a warning label that says "Cigarettes cause neck cancer" in Malay.]

Singaporeans buying a pack of cigarettes across the Causeway may soon be faced with a familiar - if discomfitting - sight.

From March, all cigarette packs sold in Malaysia have to carry graphic pictures to warn people of the dangers of smoking, reported The Star.

The packaging regulation is part of the government's latest blitz against smoking.

In Singapore, cigarette packs started carrying graphic images such as diseased lungs and bleeding brains in August 2004.

And in November 2006, the Health Promotion Board (HPB) released a new set of gory images as a miscarried foetus, a cheek eaten away by cancer and a gangrenous foot to be carried on cigarette packs.

HPB said the change was needed as studies have shown that warning labels become stale over time.

In Malaysia, packaging with similargory images have already started appearing.

These include a picture of a dead foetus, as well as a picture of someone affected by neck cancer. (See picture above.)

How effective are these images?

The findings of a first ever cross-cultural survey in Singapore and Scotland released last year suggested that graphic health warning labels may just be the extra push smokers need to kick the habit.

In Singapore, 163 people were polled , while 112 were surveryed in Scotland. They were shown five Australian graphic health warning labels relating to smoking-related diseases and asked to grade the level of fear and disgust they felt.

Here, 39 per cent felt extremely fearful, while 26 per cent in Scotland felt that way.

One quarter of the respondents in both countries said the labels would have no effect in preventing them from smoking or stopping smoking.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Jan 11, 2009.