The Graphic Cigarette Warnings Big Tobacco Doesn't Want You to See (PICTURES)

(CBS) With smoking on the decline in the U.S., big tobacco is looking overseas to sell its products.

But to do that, it must contend with the tough warning labels required by some countries - including Uruguay, whose labeling regulations triggered a lawsuit this year by tobacco company Philip Morris International.

PICTURES: Cigarette Warnings So Graphic Big Tobacco Sued

Uruguay requires the warnings to cover a whopping 80 percent of each cigarette package, Dr. Adriana Blanco, tobacco control adviser with the Pan American Health Organization, tells CBS News. The labels contain text explaining the health risks and graphic images of rotten teeth, a grotesquely disfigured baby, and more.

Is the lawsuit justified?

Not according to the World Health Organization.

"They're using litigation to threaten low- and middle-income countries," Dr. Douglas Bettcher, head of the W.H.O.'s Tobacco Free Initiative, told the New York Times.

Uruguay's gross domestic product is half the size of the company's $66 billion in annual sales, according to the Times.

But a spokesman for Philip Morris International said the company was in compliance with every nation's marketing laws while selling a lawful product for adult consumers, the Times reported. "We have supported and will continue to support effective and sensible tobacco regulations," the company said in an October 5 statement on its website.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

PICTURES: Cigarette Warnings So Graphic Big Tobacco Sued