Before You Light Up, See the Smoke Alarm on Your Cigarette

livemint.com:

SYDNEY—For decades, health authorities have been warning about the dangers of smoking. In many countries, cigarette packaging carries graphic images of black lungs and emaciated cancer patients.

Now, some countries want to go a step further by emblazoning warnings such as “Poison in Every Puff" on the cigarettes themselves. Researchers have also studied such options as wrapping cigarettes in off-putting colors, including “fecal yellow-brown" and “slimy green." Advocates of the changes say they are needed to keep people from growing desensitized to the message, with some research showing that even pictorial health warnings start to lose effectiveness within two years.

They also say the current warning on packs often miss teenagers and others who receive individual cigarettes from friends, and that messages on the cigarettes themselves could reach children who see the remains of their parents’ smokes in ashtrays. Still, some smokers are unconvinced the changes will make much of a difference.

Eddie Storace, a 63-year-old who has smoked since he was young in Australia, called printing messages on the cigarettes themselves “a little bit absurd." “People are just going to sigh and go, ‘Oh yeah, as if I don’t bloody know,’" he said. Talk of restyling cigarettes as a smoking deterrent comes as governments worldwide rethink how best to further cut smoking rates.