This past summer while in Perugia I was completly fascinated with the health warnings on packs of cigarette in Italy.
(Had the idea that the U.S. was way ahead of Italy on this.) Stores in Italy have their cigarette packs and boxes lined
up with all these dire warnings. Il fumo uccide!! Damn! Smoking kills!! How much more of a warning can you give?!
Now, let's see, if I smoke I will die!!!Forse non debo fumare!!!

Some of the warnings on cigarette packs and boxes in Italy translated for you:

Smoking Causes Lung Cancer
Smoking Causes Heart Disease
Smoking Kills!!!!
Your Smoking Harms Others
Smoking When Pregnant Harms Your Baby
Smoking Is Addictive
Second hand smoke harms children don't do it

Then there were warnings or advice on cigarette boxes such as: Il tuo medico o il tuo farmacista possono aiutarti a smettere di fumare.
Your doctor or your farmacista can help you to quit smoking.

Now compare that to the warnings on cigarette packs in the U.S.:

"Women should not smoke durning pregnancy." In other words this gives the idea that if you're a man or if you're a woman not pregnant then it's ok to smoke.

IL FUMO UCCIDE in Italia! Ill fumo oo-CHEE-day! In the U.S. smoking doesn't kill
you it only hurts you when you're pregnant. Actually smoking doen't even hurt
you at all in the U.S. It just hurts the baby and only if your pregnant.

Every year 450,000 people die from smoking in the U.S. compared to 50,000 a year in Italy.
Populaton of the U.S. 300 million. Population of Italy 60 million. How does that compare?
So if Italy had a population of 300 million they would have only 250,000 or so dieing of smoking in a year.
E vero questo?

Villa - I think the warnings are a European standard - the UK packs have identical warnings on them. They are also of such a size that you can hardly see which brand of cigarettes they are anymore. I smoke, and am aware of the dangers before I even by a packet. Personally I'd prefer a more honest approach like :- "These may kill you, but please buy them anyway as the billions of pounds we get in tax revenue will help fund your treatment".

The UK has about the highest tax (or "Duty" as they like to call it) on cigarettes of any country, and without the tax revenue, the UK government would have to raise taxes all round to make up the loss.

Anyone with half a brain knows smoking is bad for your health, but if the Governments in the EU really are that concerned, then ban them! They won't of course, the same as huge 4x4 cars will not be prohibited - just a huge tax imposed which can be passed off as "green".

"These may kill you, but please buy them anyway as the billions of pounds we get in tax revenue will help fund your treatment".

Molto divertente Marky!

Marky, Tu stai vivendo in Italia adesso non e vero?
E la tua moglie e Italiana si non mi sbaglio. Lei fuma anche?

Hi Villa - Yes, I'm living in Italy at the moment. My wife is Italian, but doesn't (and never has) smoked (doesn't drink either). I keep up all the bad habits to compensate! I very rarely smoke inside the house over here - it seems to me that there is no point in stinking out the house when there is a covered balcony I can use, and even in winter it's not so cold so as to be uncomfortable.

The warnings on the packets in UK caused some annoyance because of the size - some enterprising company even brought out alternative stickers (same size and typeface) that could be stuck over the real warnings, with some very un-PC comments ("Smoking is Cool", "Smoking makes you look hard" etc. etc.). Personally I thought the warnings on the side were enough. Still, if the larger warnings put some people off, so much the better for their health, but just watch the other taxes go up...............:p