Thursday 2 June 2022 11:04 PM Putting graphic warnings on cigarette packets like in UK and Canada has 'no ... trends now
Putting graphic warnings on cigarette packets in America like in the UK and Canada will have 'no effect' on smoking habits, but will shame people into hiding their cigarettes, a new study finds.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, found smokers given packs stamped with images of diseased feet and throat cancer continued to puff on about 10 cigarettes a day.
But six in ten smokers admitted to concealing the packets at least some of the time, which was up 50 percent from the around 40 percent of people in America's peer nations that responded the same.
America mandated graphic warnings for cigarettes in 2009, in line with other countries such as the UK and Canada, but the new designs are yet to appear on packages with the order currently held up by legal challenges filed in courts from the tobacco industry.
Scientists at University of California, San Diego, gave American smokers packs of cigarettes that had graphic warnings on them and monitored whether it made them more likely to conceal the packages and stop smoking. Above is the image of throat cancer
They found that graphic warnings - such as the diseased foot pictured above - had 'no effect' on the number of cigarettes they had per day
But the scientists did find that the packages led to six in ten smokers concealing them, instead of the normal four in ten. Above is another graphic warning image of a baby
Two other groups included in the trial were given either blank cigarette packets (as shown above) or their normal ones. They showed no change in smoking behaviour
The above graph shows the proportion of smokers in each group who said they concealed their packets in the three groups (yellow line). Those who got packets with graphic images (GWL pack) were more likely to conceal their packets, but there was no change in the group that got standard US and blank packs
Dr John Pierce, a public health expert who led the study, and others noted: 'The inclusion of graphic warnings on cigarette packs had no effect on smoking behavior.
'[However], repackaging cigarettes with graphic warnings significantly increased the percentage of smokers who reported pack-hiding behavior at least some of the time from 41 to 57 percent.'
