ANTI-SMOKING advisers in Plymouth are gearing up for a rush of calls after graphic pictures of the effects of the habit are published on cigarette packets.

Fifteen pictures, including gruesome images of throat cancer and rotting teeth accompanied by blunt warnings, will start to appear on packets of cigarettes across the country from Wednesday.

Among the other images smokers will see are rotting lungs, a corpse in a morgue and a body cut open during surgery as Britain becomes the first country in the European Union to put warning pictures on packets.

Manufacturers are forced by law to put the images on new packets from October 1 and they become compulsory on all packets by October 2009.

The Plymouth NHS Stop Smoking Service has backed the images and is preparing for increased calls from smokers wanting to kick the habit.

Advisers are already busy helping smokers who have been encouraged to quit by last year's ban on smoking in public places.

Service manager Russ Moody said: "The images are graphic, but I support them because the evidence shows that people do tend to quit smoking when they see these sort of warnings.

"I sympathise with smokers who feel uncomfortable and who feel they are being victimised. I also recognise the impetus that it gives people who want to quit and we as a service are here to help those people.

"I feel there are a lot of smokers who are ambivalent about smoking, who are in two minds about trying to give up. Hopefully these images will push them over the edge in terms of helping them to give up.

"We have made provision in our capacity to deal with any influx in demand that we might see. We have changed the way we work."

The service has 14 members of staff but now has a bank of trained advisers on stand-by who can help smokers if enough come forward.

The changes were made in the wake of the smoking ban in public places, which led to a 40 per cent increase in the number of clients contacting the service in its first three months.

Last year the Plymouth NHS Stop Smoking Service helped 2,120 people to quit smoking.

Canada was the first country to introduce picture warnings in 2001.

Research a year later found 31 per cent of ex-smokers said the images had motivated them to quit the habit while 27 per cent said they had helped them to remain non-smokers, according to the Department of Health.

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