Health & Medicine
Cigarette Packs That Are Plain May Prevent Some Users From Smoking
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Feb 17, 2015 03:06 PM EST
It's sad but true. Many humans are utterly impressionable and extremely shallow; so when it comes to a shiny box versus a plain one, they're more likely to pick up something that's striking even when it's dangerous to their health.
New research published in the journal Addiction found that switching colorful packs of cigarettes to plain labels could essentially reduce smoking rates and outdoor smoking, as well. Researchers are confident that tobacco packaging without labels or branding could help prevent new smokers from regularly lighting up.
"Plain packaging may reduce smoking rates in current smokers by reducing the extent to which the package acts as an unconscious trigger for smoking urges," the researchers noted, in a news release.
The study results are based on evidence from Australia, where the government removed labels from cigarette packages while adding graphic health warning to the packs since two years ago.
The findings showed that not only were many young people less likely to smoke, but they also focused more on the warnings.
"Even if standardized packaging had no effect at all on current smokers and only stopped 1 in 20 young people from being lured into smoking it would save about 2,000 lives each year," said Professor Robert West, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Addiction.
Despite numerous health warnings, cigarette smoking is still responsible for an estimated 480,000 deaths every year in the United states; that's about one in five deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Furthermore, smoking can increase the risk of cancer of the bladder, blood, cervix, esophagus, kidney, larynx, liver, pancreas, stomach and the colon and rectum.
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
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First Posted: Feb 17, 2015 03:06 PM EST
It's sad but true. Many humans are utterly impressionable and extremely shallow; so when it comes to a shiny box versus a plain one, they're more likely to pick up something that's striking even when it's dangerous to their health.
New research published in the journal Addiction found that switching colorful packs of cigarettes to plain labels could essentially reduce smoking rates and outdoor smoking, as well. Researchers are confident that tobacco packaging without labels or branding could help prevent new smokers from regularly lighting up.
"Plain packaging may reduce smoking rates in current smokers by reducing the extent to which the package acts as an unconscious trigger for smoking urges," the researchers noted, in a news release.
The study results are based on evidence from Australia, where the government removed labels from cigarette packages while adding graphic health warning to the packs since two years ago.
The findings showed that not only were many young people less likely to smoke, but they also focused more on the warnings.
"Even if standardized packaging had no effect at all on current smokers and only stopped 1 in 20 young people from being lured into smoking it would save about 2,000 lives each year," said Professor Robert West, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Addiction.
Despite numerous health warnings, cigarette smoking is still responsible for an estimated 480,000 deaths every year in the United states; that's about one in five deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Furthermore, smoking can increase the risk of cancer of the bladder, blood, cervix, esophagus, kidney, larynx, liver, pancreas, stomach and the colon and rectum.
For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone