/ 26 July 2013

Plain packets are not to smokers’ taste

The law
The law

The Australian research, published in the British Medical Journal and funded by Cancer Council Victoria, was commissioned in the first three months of the roll-out of plain packaging in Australia last year to look at any immediate effects.

It found 30.6% of smokers using plain packaging perceived their cigarettes to be of lower quality than a year earlier, compared with 18.1% of smokers using branded cigarettes.

It was also reported that 26.2% of plain-package smokers were less satisfied by their cigarettes than they were a year earlier, compared with 14.9% of branded-packet smokers.

Plain-packaged cigarettes in olive- green cartons, with graphic health warnings covering more than half of the box, were first sold in Australia last October and became compulsory in December.

Researchers interviewed 536 smokers between October and December to track any early trends. The survey did not include smokers who quit during the three months.

Kylie Lindorff, the acting executive director of Quit Victoria, an anti-smoking lobby group, said the research proved the legislation had worked by reducing the appeal of cigarettes but longer-term research was being carried out to determine whether it led more smokers to quit.

"As soon as those packs started to roll out, we were getting lots of anecdotal reports about people thinking the taste had changed or the industry had done something to the cigarettes, which they hadn't. It just goes to show how powerful packaging actually is in terms of what people's perception is of what they're getting," she said.

The research is the first in the world to examine the impact of compulsory plain packaging on smokers.

"In all analyses, plain-pack smokers were more likely to think often or very often about quitting in the past week, and to rate quitting as a higher priority, compared to branded-pack smokers," the report said.

The publication of the research comes as debate rages in the United Kingdom after Prime Minister David Cameron backed away from a commitment to introduce plain packaging amid reports that he had caved in to tobacco lobbyists. Cameron's election strategist, the Australian Lynton Crosby, has links to Philip Morris tobacco through his London-based lobbying company CTF.

Lindorff said the excuse Cameron used – that there was not enough research to prove plain packaging works – was "flimsy" and she hoped the emergence of the latest research would cause a reversal of the decision.

"Plain packaging works. If it didn't, there would be no way the tobacco industry would be fighting it so hard. If the industry are jumping up and down as much as they are then you certainly know it is likely to have an impact and they know it," she said. – © Guardian News & Media 2013

Bridie Jabour is a contributor to the Guardian