CHANDIGARH – At a time when a parliamentary panel has rejected the government’s move for harsher and larger pictorial warnings, saying there’s no evidence showing they work, a study in Punjab has shown that they do.
Commissioned by the Punjab Government and conducted in collaboration with PGIMER, Chandigarh, the study reveals that among current smokers in the state, a whopping 97.4 per cent noticed pictorial health warnings on tobacco packages and of these 61.5 per cent thought about quitting after watching the public health label.
Most significant is the impact of pictorial warnings among youngsters. The study, accessed by The Tribune, shows the effect of anti-tobacco warnings was universal among users aged 18 to 24.
“All young tobacco users aged 18 to 24 surveyed said they had seen the pictorial health warnings and even thought of quitting as a result of reflecting on the implications of tobacco use. The impact of anti-tobacco warnings among youngsters was found to be universal,” says the study jointly conducted by Dr Sonu Goel of the School of Public Health, PGI Chandigarh and Dr Rakesh Gupta, Punjab Tobacco Control Officer.
It concludes that health warnings on cigarette packs are highly effective insofar as impact on the tobacco users’ urge to quit is concerned.
