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~1,200 current and former smokers die prematurely
The nation spends >$260 million in direct medical costs related to smoking
The US alone spends >$270 million in lost productivity
Are you shocked by this? I sure am. Last week the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) passed a new comprehensive tobacco control strategy aimed to encourage more smokers to quit and prevent non-smokers from starting. The initiative described as “the most significant change to health warnings on cigarettes and in cigarette advertisements in more than 25 years” will force tobacco companies to display warning labels covering >20% of the total packaging. source
“We want to make sure that every person who picks up a pack of cigarettes knows exactly what the risk is they are taking,” said HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius. source
On one hand, I’d argue that most current smokers (and those about to start) already do know the harmful effects. Yes many current smokers didn’t have the knowledge we have today when they started, but I think it’s safe to say that today the general population agrees smoking is harmful to your health and can kill you.
I’d be interested to know what percentage of smokers subconsciously keep the warning labels out of view from others. For example, if fur coats contained a small tag that said “this fur came from a live animal”, I’d bet most fur lovers would tuck the tag away from public viewing. However, if the tag was written over 20% of the coat, would they still wear it?
What about forcing tobacco companies to make the actual cigarettes (not just packaging, as they’re more visible) share a common feature representing some type of warning? For instance, consider a “Black stripes, Black lungs” campaign (as an example) where all cigarette paper was required to be black and white striped.
Do you propose increasing tobacco taxes, costs of cigarettes, etc?
Do you think the new packaging will help?
What do you think would work?
Biochemista 