A new study has found that adding graphic warnings on cigarette packs in the United States, as well as in the United Kingdom and Canada, “will have no effect” on smoking habits, but will embarrass people by hiding cigarettes.
Researchers at the University of California at San Diego found that smokers who bought packs containing pictures of sick feet and throat cancer still smoked about 10 cigarettes a day.
But six out of ten smokers admitted to keeping packs, at least for part of the time; That’s 50 percent more than the roughly 40 percent of people in America who react the same way in similar countries.
In line with other countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, it implemented graphic warnings for cigarettes in 2009, but the new designs have yet to appear on the packaging, the order being blocked by legal appeals currently filed in United States courts. Kingdom. tobacco industry.
Scientists at the University of California at San Diego gave cigarette packs with graphic warnings to American smokers and tested whether this made them more likely to hide the packs and quit smoking. Above is an image of throat cancer
They found that graphical stimuli, such as sick feet pictured above, “had no effect” on the number of cigarettes they smoked per day.
But the scientists found that the packs caused six out of ten smokers to hide them, instead of the regular four in ten smokers. Above is another graphic warning of a child
The other two groups participating in the study were given either empty (as shown above) or regular packs of cigarettes. They showed no change in smoking behavior
The graph above shows the proportion of smokers in each group who reported hiding their backpacks across the three groups (yellow line). Those who received graphics packages (GWL Packages) were more likely to hide their packages, but the group that received the US standard and blank packages did not change.
Dr. John Pierce and others, a public health expert who led the study, noted: “Adding graphic warnings to cigarette packs had no effect on smoking behavior.
†[However]Repackaging cigarettes with graphic warnings significantly increased the percentage of smokers suffering from constipation at least part of the time, from 41 percent to 57 percent.
In the study, published today in the JAMA Open Network, researchers recruited nearly 400 smokers in the San Diego area.
Participants were on average 40 years old and had no intention of quitting smoking when they signed up.
A third received packaged cigarettes with the same graphic warnings as those in Australia for three months.
Others were sent in empty packages or those with US standard labels on them.
During the three-month study period, participants were asked to report whether they kept their pack of cigarettes “at least for part of the time” each day and how much they smoked.
The scientists then followed them for another nine months as they used regular cigarette packs.
The rate they kept in the group that received the graphics packages increased from four out of ten to six.
But when they were allowed to buy their regular pack of cigarettes again, it dropped to four out of ten.
By comparison, in the other two groups, about four in 10 participants said they kept their cigarette packs “at least for part of the time” during the study.
Participants in the group that received graphic stimuli smoked about 11 cigarettes a day at the start of the trial and dropped to nine by the end.
But the scientists said this difference was not significant and was likely due to other factors.
The average number of cigarettes consumed per day in the other two groups decreased from 11 to 9.
Scholars said their research still suggests that graphic warnings should be used because storing cigarette packs reduces the likelihood of teens smoking.
More than 120 countries are already forcing tobacco companies to place warnings about the side effects of smoking on their packages.
But a growing body of research suggests that the warnings become less effective as smokers become more used to them.
A 2019 article found that about 36% of smokers in Canada who started using the warnings two decades ago found “no” or “minimal” effective in quitting them.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that approximately 31 million Americans — or one in eight adults — smoke.
That number may gradually increase now, with cigarette sales rising nearly 0.4% last year for the first time in two decades.
There has also been an increase in the number of young Americans starting to vape with approximately 2.5 million tobacco products by 2021.
Source: Daily Mail
I am Anne Johnson and I work as an author at the Fashion Vibes. My main area of expertise is beauty related news, but I also have experience in covering other types of stories like entertainment, lifestyle, and health topics. With my years of experience in writing for various publications, I have built strong relationships with many industry insiders. My passion for journalism has enabled me to stay on top of the latest trends and changes in the world of beauty.
