Health warnings "not up to the job "? Don't worry, here's another idea ...

Tomorrow in Strasbourg MEPs vote on proposals to revise the Tobacco Products Directive.

They include plans to increase the size of health warnings and put them on the back and front of the pack.

Some of us believe this is not far short of plain packaging which the UK Government has so far declined to introduce owing to a complete lack of evidence that it has any significant impact on youth smoking rates.

Undeterred by this important fact, the British Heart Foundation last night published the results of a "unique cross-hemisphere" poll of teenagers in Britain and Australia.

According to the BHF:

Only a third (36%) of UK teenagers are deterred from smoking by current cigarette packs, compared to half (48%) of teenagers in Australia, where packs are almost entirely covered by graphic warnings, according to our unique cross-hemisphere survey.

The poll of 2,500 13- to 18-year-olds in the UK and Australia, the first country in the world to adopt standardised cigarette packs last year, revealed nearly 8 in 10 (77%) British teenagers think the UK should introduce standardised cigarette packs.

Our survey also paints a picture of support for standardised packs from Australia’s youth with nearly 6 in 10 (59%) saying the packs make people their age less likely to smoke. Two thirds (66%) of Australian teens think the packs should be introduced elsewhere in the world.

Forest was alerted to the poll yesterday and rushed out this response:

"We've heard it all before. A few years ago anti-tobacco campaigners said graphic images on cigarette packs would dramatically reduce youth smoking rates.

"That policy has obviously been a failure because they now say that current health warnings aren't fit for purpose and they want standardised packaging and even larger warnings on the pack.

"They can interview as many teenagers as they like but until there is hard evidence that the policy reduces youth smoking rates there is no justification for standardised packaging or larger health warnings.

"Teenagers don't smoke because of packaging. The primary factors are peer pressure and the influence of family members.

'The only way to deter more teenagers from smoking is through education and by cracking down on illicit traders, proxy purchasers and shopkeepers who sell to tobacco to children."

The BHF poll has received a fair bit of coverage from the usual suspects - Guardian, Independent (but not the BBC) plus a number of regional newspapers - and with one honourable exception the media has run the story without a single opposing comment.

So I'll repeat:

A few years ago we were told that graphic health warnings would shock teenagers so much they wouldn't touch a cigarette.

Now we're told the current warnings are "not up to the job".

The question any self-respecting journalist should ask is this:

If graphic warnings are considered such a failure, why should anyone believe that standardised packaging and larger health warnings will be any different?

Oh, sorry, I forgot - because some teenagers in Britain and Australia think it will.

Comments

[Sheila]

There's also an article in the Daily Mail with comments Simon

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2448351/Cigarette-packaging-featuring-health-warnings-deters-teenagers-smoking.html