Health warnings on cigarette packages — particularly graphic ones with images such as pictures of diseased lungs or neck tumors — appear to be an effective way to coax smokers to consider kicking the habit.
That’s the conclusion of an international survey published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Researchers who surveyed smokers in 14 foreign countries that require health warnings on tobacco products found that nearly all of the puffers noticed the admonitions.
And in all but one of the countries, Poland, more than one-quarter of the smokers said that the warnings have prompted them to consider quitting, according to Agence France-Presse. In six of those countries, more than half of the smokers said the labels prodded them to think about giving up the habit.
The most effective labels appear to be graphic warnings. According to the study, they reach not only people who can’t, or don’t, read written warnings, but they also might draw more of an emotional response that could motivate a smoker to quit. The study urged the use of such warnings as part of a global effort to curb smoking.
The United Kingdom, as the Daily Mail reported, in 2008 became the first country in Europe to place images on cigarette packs showing the “grim reality” of the potential effects of smoking.
“Tobacco kills more than 5 million people a year — more than HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria combined — and will kill more than 1 billion people in this century unless urgent action is taken,” said the CDC’s director, Dr. Thomas Frieden, in a news release. “Warning labels motivate smokers to quit and discourage nonsmokers from starting, are well accepted by the public, and can be effectively implemented at virtually no cost to governments.”
The researchers’ conclusions were drawn from data from the 2008-2010 Global Adult Tobacco Survey from 14 countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Russia, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay and Vietnam.
In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration is working on more conspicuous cigarette pack warning labels. In Australia, the parliament is looking into going a step further with its packaging changes. It is considering a bill that would require cigarettes to be sold in plain-colored packs, carrying graphic images of death and disease, but no customary company logos.
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