The European Union has decided to increase the size and horror factor of health warnings on cigarette packets, but 快猫短视频 can reveal a new twist: a talking cigarette packet that recites a health warning every time you open it.
Ironically, the idea comes from a UK firm that supplies machinery to make cigarettes.
The revelation comes from a patent (GB 2351061) filed by Molins in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. A stiff plastic strip connects the hinged lid of a cigarette packet to a microchip and a miniature loudspeaker hidden in the base.
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As the smoker opens the lid, the strip slides to close a switch and trigger playback of a small recording. This could be music 鈥� a funeral march, perhaps 鈥� or a health warning 鈥渋n any or several languages鈥�.
Anti-smoking organisation Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) is highly amused by the idea of a cigarette packet which verbally tells a smoker 鈥渢his may kill you鈥�. But spokeswoman Amanda Sandford fears that it鈥檚 something 鈥渢obacco companies would only use if required by law鈥�.
But Molins鈥� spokesman Andrew Pennycook thinks it could prove popular: 鈥淭he industry is always looking for innovations that give an advantage,鈥� he says.