Plain packaging can stop the temptation for new smokers
Non-smokers are less likely to take up smoking now the cigarette packaging is plain and smokers might reduce the number of cigarettes they are smoking too, according to scientists.
According to the journal of Addiction, these plain packs are still a new concept and so there is no conclusive evidence as yet, however it looks like they have the potential to reduce smoking rates in the UK.
Britain plans to introduce non-branded standard packaging for cigarettes and is the second country to do so. The legislation was passed last month and will come into effect in 2016.
Australia was the other country that moved to standard packaging two years ago, despite the resistance from the tobacco industry. The cigarettes had to be sold in plain green packs with health warnings to demonstrate the health implications of smoking.
After this change, there were less people smoking in outdoor areas of cafes, bars and restaurants and a drop in smokers who left their cigarette packets on display.
Adolescents were less likely to smoke once the brand imagery was removed and the health warnings became larger.
Robert West, editor-in-chief of the journal, said that this was the most significant result of the plain packaging.
“Even if standardised packaging had no effect at all on current smokers and only stopped one in 20 young people from being lured into smoking (in the UK), it would save about 2,000 lives a year,” he told reporters in London.
Tobacco firms have opposed the new law stating that the standard packaging affects the intellectual property rights by covering up the branding and will have a negative impact on counterfeiting and smuggling.
But Ann McNeill, a professor of tobacco addiction at King’s College London, said that those who create cigarettes should note that their product would have never hit the shelves had it been made today.
“For an addictive product that kills so many of its users, the tobacco industry should consider itself fortunate that ... it is allowed to sell its toxic products at all, let alone try to make them attractive through the packaging,” she said.