Cigarettes Packaging Should be Plain

“Fancy,” “posh” and “pretty” – these are all words used by children in Cancer Research UK’s new video to describe a selection of current cigarette packets. Looking at one of the packs, a little boy says: “I think it would be quite fun to play with. It makes you almost happy looking at it.” For most of us the idea that children are attracted to these deadly products is simply shocking. Cancer Research UK statistics show that more than 4,000 people died of lung cancer in Scotland in 2010. This risk of developing this devastating disease increases significantly in smokers and is just one of the cancers that can be the consequence of an addiction that is promoted to women as being glamorous and to men as offering maturity and popularity. There is much we can do to prevent a new generation of children from starting to smoke in the first place. The ban on smoking in public places has gone a long way to help Scots kick this deadly habit, but much more needs to be done to stop a new generation of children growing up as addicted adult smokers. The next step is to introduce plain and unattractive cigarette packaging so that fewer children are tempted to take their first steps towards tobacco addiction. The UK government is currently discussing whether to replace the brightly colored and slickly designed packs with ones of uniform size, shape and colors, with large picture warnings on the front and back. The move to bring in plain packaging like this is something Cancer Research UK strongly supports and we believe it will help reduce the appeal of tobacco to young people. We also know that public opinion is behind us on this issue. A YouGov poll released by Ash Scotland just last week showed two thirds of Scots questioned were behind a move to introduce plain packaging. We think public support will be further boosted by Cancer Research UK’s new report which refers to documents from the tobacco industry that show that packaging has indeed been developed to specifically appeal to new smokers, through size, color and design. This is significant when you consider that eight out of ten smokers start before the age of 19 years.