Push to put warnings on individual cigarettes to help smokers quit

Researchers fear graphic images and health warnings on cigarette packets have lost their impact, with calls to now put messages on each individual cigarette.

But Tom Elliott wonders whether the roughly 12 per cent of Australians who still smoke would take any notice.

“I just think that everybody who still smokes knows it is bad for you – they’re probably physically addicted, they probably can’t give up, or want to give up,” the 3AW Drive host said.

“I don’t think it will make any difference.”

But Dr Aaron Drovandi, Lecturer at the College of Medicine and Dentistry at James Cook University, and lead researcher of the study, said it was worth finding out.

“Around three quarters of smokers do actually want to quit and sometimes it is just giving them that extra bit of information, that extra prompt, to help them go about quitting,” he explained.

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