Call for standardized cigarettes

An anti-tobacco group is calling on the New Zealand government to consider requiring cigarettes to be clad in ‘unattractive’ standardized paper and tipping paper, according to a medicalxpress.com story quoting ASPIRE2025 researchers at the University of Otago.

Professor Janet Hoek was quoted as saying that she and her colleagues had found that cigarette sticks with printed health warnings or unattractive colors could enhance the effects of standardized tobacco packaging and further reduce the appeal smoking had among young people.

In a paper published in the BMJ journal Tobacco Control, the Otago researchers said they and colleagues in Australia had conducted an online survey of 313 New Zealand smokers.

Hoek said the team had tested reactions to the images of four cigarette sticks that either featured printed warnings or had what she referred to as unattractive colours, such as yellow-brown and green.

“We found that smokers were significantly less likely to choose the test sticks and found all significantly less appealing than the status quo—a white cigarette with a brown filter tip,” she said.

But a ‘minutes of life lost’ graphic that went from one minute near the tip of the cigarette to 15 minutes near the butt had the strongest aversive effect relative to the other sticks tested.

“Requiring cigarette sticks and rolling paper to feature such a graphic, or to be produced in dissuasive colors, would likely increase the impact plain packaging will have on those who smoke, while also deterring others from taking up smoking,” Hoek said.