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COLUMBIA (WACH) -- Graphic images on cigarette packs may be enough to stop some smokers according to a new study by a University of South Carolina public health professor.

According to the study the more graphic warning pictures are, the more they deter smokers, said Jim Thrasher, assistant professor in the Arnold School of Public Health Department of Health Promotion, Education and Behavior.

“Tobacco use continues to be the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, and graphic health warnings are among the most cost-effective interventions that exist,” Thrasher said.

The study comes after a U.S. federal judge delayed implementing graphic warning labels on cigarette packages.

“This preliminary injunction indicates that the United States places greater value on deadly commercial speech than on public health,” said Thrasher.

The study showed that compared to text graphic imagery is more effective in increasing understanding of smoking risks.

“Compared to abstract imagery or information, evocative imagery is better able to communicate the range and magnitude of harms from smoking,” Thrasher said. “Pictures of bodily harm and pictures that depict human suffering work well across cultural groups,” he said.

The proposed U.S. warning labels would be the first change to cigarette package warnings in 25 years.

Included among the proposed labels are: the corpse of a smoker, diseased lungs, and a mother holding her baby with smoke swirling around them. They include phrases like "Smoking can kill you" and "Cigarettes cause cancer" and feature graphic images to convey the dangers of tobacco, which is responsible for about 443,000 deaths in the U.S. a year.

Each label includes a national quit smoking hotline number.

American Cancer Society CEO John R. Seffrin applauded the new labels in a statement, saying they have the potential to "encourage adults to give up their deadly addiction to cigarettes and deter children from starting in the first place."

The new labels come as the share of Americans who smoke has fallen dramatically since 1970, from nearly 40 percent to about 20 percent. The rate has stalled since about 2004. About 46 million adults in the U.S. smoke cigarettes.

The FDA estimates the new labels will reduce the number of smokers by 213,000 in 2013, with smaller additional reductions through 2031.

Do you think graphic warning labels would measurably decrease smoking in the US? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.