A British firm has filed a patent for a talking cigarette packet which delivers a cancer warning to a smoker every time he opens the lid.

The gadget comprises a stiff plastic strip which connects the hinged lid of the packet to a microchip and a tiny loudspeaker. When the smoker opens the lid, the strip slides to close a switch, causing the chip to trot out a verbal warning about the hazards of smoking or even a snatch of music such as the funeral march.

The inventors are Molins, a company based in High Wycombe, which ironically supplies machinery to make cigarettes, the British weekly New Scientist reports in next Saturday's issue.