Tobacco products branding is helping to attract teen smokers, according to the findings presented by the UK research.

The research demonstrated that approximately 87% of teens and adults trough plain cigarette packages were not so attractive that branded smoking products. 16% of the surveyed declared that they would take into account the pack design when thinking which cigarette brand to purchase, while about 12% acknowledged choosing a brand because it was fine. Among the 2,500 16 to 26 year olds surveyed, just over a quarter of heavy smokers judged only one smoking brand to be less dangerous than other solely on the basis of package.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) supervised the online OnePoll research ahead of a government consultation on whether to make plain packaging mandatory for all smoking products. “As about adults they know that smoking is a very addictive habit that kills a great number of smokers. Young people are not so informed about the risks and the branding has a great influence upon them,” stated, charity’s director Betty McBride. Cigarette advertising and promotion is already prohibited in the UK. However the present bright package still advertises smokes on the cigarette packages. It is a ridiculous gap the tobacco industry benefits from in order to attract teen smokers. We should put the end if we really want to protect our future generation from this dangerous habit.

According to the research, about 200,000 teenagers and adults in England light up each year, and more than 2/3 of the UK’s 10 million smokers were lured into this habit before turning 18. In general, 69% of the surveyed teenagers, who also included non-smokers, agreed that cigarette packaging was a sort of advertising. Some thought that selling smoking products in plain packaging with graphic health warnings would make it easier for people to stop smoking or at least light up less cigarettes per day.

On November the Australian government decided to make the typical plain packages for cigarettes compulsory starting from December 2012. The BHF is requiring the government to pass a tobacco plain packaging Bill and also effective graphic health warnings for cigarette packages.

By Steve Shepherd, Staff Writer. Copyright © 2011 Cigarette-Store.org. All rights reserved.