23.02.12
Smoke and mirrors
Could enforcing plain packaging on cigarettes really dissuade the thousands of children who start smoking every year in theUK?
Cancer Research UK believes so and is petitioning for the change.
Certainly, it can’t make people more likely to smoke, but there are other factors involved with the decision to take up smoking, and peer pressure, friends’ habits and family incidence of smoking will all influence the child, probably to a greater extent than the visual appearance of the cigarettes.
It is time for a cultural change in our attitudes towards smoking, rather than laying the blame on the cigarette manufacturers’ door. The reason cigarettes sell and sell so well, is because people want them. And this demand is not only, or even mainly down to their packaging.
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