BOSTON - Massachusetts could become the first state to force retailers to display ?" at their registers ?" graphic ads that warn customers about the effects of smoking, reports the Boston Globe.

Images in the ads would feature "ominously darkened lungs, damaged brains, and diseased teeth could start appearing before the end of the year in more than 9,000 convenience stores, pharmacies and gas stations, if a proposal by the state Department of Public Health is approved as expected," writes the newspaper.

Also, retailers who refuse to post the signs within 2 feet of tobacco displays and registers could face fines of $100 to $300.

The ads mirror a New York City campaign that began last December. Massachusetts would use $316,000 in federal stimulus money from the CDC, notes the newspaper, "which will allow the state to provide the materials to retailers without charge."

Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, commented that most retailers "will respond coolly" to another mandate.

"Do you really have to have additional graphic signage and multiple layers of it at each cash register????? said Hurst, adding, "If you warn on everything, those warnings become essentially meaningless. They already have signage on alcohol, tobacco, lottery, they have signage on price accuracy.????

Philip Morris commented that such graphic warnings, if established, should be under the authority of the federal government, which has expanded authority to the FDA for the manufacture, distribution and retail sales of tobacco products as part of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, notes the newspaper.

The Massachusetts Public Health Council is expected to vote on the graphic posters in August.