Why graphic warnings on cigarette packets are a sound idea

Studies around the world show that pictures depicting the effects of tobacco use can drastically cut down smoking ‒ and eventually prevent cancer.

Studies conducted around the world suggest that potential smokers can be scared away by graphic depictions of throat cancers on cigarette packs, and by prominent health advisories.

Asia has been more stringent in issuing health warnings and pictorial messages on packages. Nepal ranks No 4, for instance, and Sri Lanka is at No 13. India is home to 275 million smokers and 94% of them say they have no intention of quitting.

In 2007, a study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that more than 90% of the Canadian youth agreed that picture warnings on cigarette packages increased their awareness about the adverse effects of tobacco use and made “smoking seems less attractive”.

Two years later, a similar study conducted in France by the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project came to a similar conclusion. Sixty nine per cent of smokers said that they had noticed the warnings, and half of them admitted to thinking “a lot” about their habit after seeing the graphics on the packs.

The chart above depicts the amount of space on cigarette packages taken up by health warnings in our adjacent neighboring countries.

Cancer is the cause of 6%-7% of all adult deaths in India and cigarette smoking is the cause of one-third of all the cancer cases diagnosed. The International Tobacco Control Policy report estimates that India could record 1.5 million tobacco-related deaths every year by 2020, up from the 1.2 million deaths annually estimated by The Lancet in 2012.  (scroll.in)