Smokers in New York will have to face the truth about the harmful effects of smoking on their health, as the New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene decided to launch an aggressive campaign, showing people images with throat cancer, mouth cancer, gum disease or lung cancer, all caused by smoking.

The campaign, called “Cigarettes Area Eating You Alive,” consists in printing about 400,000 matchbooks with the horrifying images that will be further delivered to 132 cigarette retailers around the city. The Matchbooks will be available for free.

“Throat cancer, gum disease, blackened lungs – these are the realities of smoking. many countries put these images right on the cigarette pack, where they belong. While the United States hasn’t done this yet – and New York City is pre-empted from requiring cigarette package labels – we are putting these images where New Yorkers buy cigarettes, just before they light up, in the hope they’ll think twice about the decision to continue smoking,” Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, city health commissioner, said.

Sarah B. Perl, the health department’s assistant commissioner for tobacco control, said the campaign is designed to counter the “glamorous, healthy images” of smoking promoted by the tobacco industry.

“The reality of smoking is ugly and devastating. We hope these images will encourage New Yorkers to get the help they need to quit,” Perl said.

According to current estimates, smoking appears to be the biggest cause of preventable deaths in the US, killing more than 400,000 people each year. Also, secondhand smoking seems to be higher than previously believed, killing almost 40,000 people annually because of cancers, respiratory infections and asthma, conditions also diagnosed in the case of smokers. Smoking also favors conditions such as heart disease and child birth defects in case of women who smoke during pregnancy.