Grim images of rotten teeth and polluted lungs are printed on cigarette packets in some countries but in South Africa the authorities are still researching which pictures have the most impact before imposing them on smokers.
And there's another snag - the National Council Against Smoking says it cannot force the use of the worldwide skull-and-crossbones danger symbol on tobacco packaging because it is associated with the Orlando Pirates soccer team and so might not have the desired effect.
The World Health Organisation issued its third annual report on the "global tobacco epidemic" last week, recommending a world-wide tightening of anti-tobacco laws.
Many countries, the UN agency said, should increase the size of warning labels, strengthen warnings and make them more specific, with pictures.
Australia is rated as among the best-performing countries with tight tobacco laws specifying that 30% of the front of a cigarette packet and 90% of the back must carry a graphic health warning.
South African legislation requires only 15% of the front and 25% of the back of a pack to bear warnings.
Australian authorities are planning to allow only olive-green packaging, judged the most unappealing hue.
In 2009, Mauritius became the first African country to illustrate warnings with pictures of tar-blackened lungs, crying babies inhaling smoke and hospital patients connected to ventilators and drips.
But there are some countries where no warnings appear on tobacco packaging, including the tiny European state of San Marino and the Asian republics of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.
In Africa, 16 countries, including Angola, Botswana, and Ethiopia, have no warnings on cigarette packs.
Sandra Mullin, of the World Lung Foundation, said in the UK's Lancet medical journal last week that "disturbing images of diseased body parts" in campaigns about the harm tobacco causes were "effective in prompting viewers to contemplate quitting".
Yusuf Saloojee, director of the SA National Council Against Smoking, said illustrated warnings would appear on packets "in the fairly near future".
The pictures "must be understandable, relevant and informative" to South Africans, he said.
"The idea is not to shock but to convey the reality of what tobacco does to people."
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