The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has unveiled new warning labels to appear on cigarette packages beginning no later than September 2012. The labels use images including dead bodies and diseased lungs to warn of the dangers of smoking. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg unveiled the images at the White House.

Kathleen Sebelius: “The new graphic warning labels will be the toughest and most effective tobacco health warnings in this country’s history, and they tell the truth. They will replace the old warning phase with pictures showing negative health consequences of smoking that are proven to be effective.”

Margaret Hamburg: “A pack-a-day smoker will see these labels more than 7,000 times a year. And kids who are under the impression that smoking is cool or glamorous will be confronted by a very different reality when they are tempted to pick up a cigarette pack 15 months from now.”

The new labels mark the first change in U.S. cigarette warnings in 25 years.