UK Government Indecisive despite ''Plain Packet'' Cigarette Test Results

Source from:  The Information Daily  08/02/2013

In July the government announced that there would be a delay in decision on plain cigarette packaging until after the Australian trial results emerge. Despite being the 'logical next step', will the findings of the trial actually influence UK policy making?

The first study results, published from Australian researchers after plain packaging was imposed nationwide, indicated that smokers using cigarettes from these plain packets perceived them to be "less satisfying and poorer quality".

In addition, these users were "more supportive of plain packaging and more likely to think about and to prioritise quitting".

Crawford Moodie, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Marketing (University of Stirling, Scotland) asks how much more evidence will be needed before the UK government makes a decision on whether it is to follow the example of Australia in marketing cigarettes with plain packaging.

He suggests that the findings from the study support the UK public health policy priority to encourage smokers to quit, but ultimately cannot authoritatively say whether they will actually influence UK decision makers or UK policy.

Moodie states that there is a "rapidly growing body of evidence on this issue" - that plain packaging would reduce appeal, increase the effectiveness of health warnings, and reduce the ability of packaging to mislead smokers regarding the harmful side effects of smoking.

Currently, the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) supports health warnings covering up to 75 per cent of the packaging which should help "reduce pack appeal, enhance the visibility of warnings and disrupt tobacco companies' ability to communicate with consumers".

However, Moodie argues that these safeguards are not enough to prevent manufacturers from "using the design of the packaging and branding to detract from these warnings" or to prevent consumer confusion about the harms of the products, suggesting that "only plain packaging can do this".

Moodie suggests that childhood is the time when most smokers become addicted to tobacco. Recent figures show that the habit amongst children continues to fall in England and has done so since 1998, with the introduction of the white paper entitled 'Smoking Kills'.

He adds however that there is "no guarantee this decline will continue if a tobacco control strategy is not maintained".

Moodie concludes that packaging is "the key marketing and communications tool for tobacco companies" since the general ban on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship within the UK, stating finally that "standardised packaging would appear to be a logical next step." Enditem