Health Department’s grim new anti-smoking signs
The Health Department’s grim new anti-smoking signs should start showing up at bodega cash registers in December – putting blackened lungs in your face in time for Christmas.
The signs will bear messages such as “SMOKING KILLS” with stark images of diseased and cancerous lips and lungs, posted at all 
12,000 city stores that sell cigarettes.
The Board of Health on Tuesday approved the signs, which will be 1 foot square on cash registers and 2 feet square on cigarette displays – a concession to opponents who said the originally proposed 3-foot-square signs would hurt retailers.
“Pictorial warnings are much more effective than text-only warnings,” said Anne Pearson, a senior Health Department lawyer.
“It communicates the information at the time and place that it matters most,” Pearson added.
She estimated the city will spend $50,000 a year to produce, distribute and update the signs.
After a grace period of a month or two, inspectors can issue fines ranging from $200 to $2,000 to store owners who don’t post the signs.
alisberg@nydailynews.com
