IN A week in which the European Union decided to increase the size and horror
factor of health warnings on cigarette packets, New Scientist can
exclusively reveal a new twist: a talking cigarette packet that recites a health
warning every time you open it. Ironically, the idea comes from a 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.
As the smoker opens the…
