Smoking causes mouth cancer definitely sounds more threatening than Smoking is injurious to health. This is the new text warning that the government wants to be printed on cigarette packs sold in Pakistan.
But what is of greater significance is the fact that all cigarette manufacturers and importers in Pakistan will now be required to use pictorial warnings on cigarette packs, come September 2010.
The commendable decision came on the very day of World No Tobacco Day, as the government vows to discourage cigarette consumption ensuring that a horrid picture of a person suffering from mouth cancer is pasted on every cigarette pack.
How effective this tactic turns out to be, is yet to be seen. But if history is any guide, empirical evidence suggests pictorial warnings have a telling impact on cigarette consumption.
A research study carried in India on the impact of pictorial warnings on tobacco consumption reveals that 20 percent smokers will think of quitting smoking and 38 percent will consider reducing consumption. The temptation for non-smokers to join the fools club is also hit hard by strong pictorial warnings, so reveals the study.
But Pakistans top cigarette manufacturers don seem too bothered about pictorial warnings impacting sales a great deal or even a bit. They are of the view that all research done in this regard is just confined to either mere response to questions or possible behaviour towards pictorial warnings, which has never been reflected in the form of dropped sales anywhere in the world. It is probably the ever growing appetite of Pakistani smokers that has left Pakistan tobacco manufacturers brimming with such confidence. Being the 7th largest bunch for smokers, Pakistanis smoke around $2.5 billion worth of cigarettes every year, according to FOA, which translates into a staggering 459 cigarettes per person per year.
Whether negative association through pictorial warnings will bear the desired fruit is yet to be seen - what is needed are strong regulations and their implementation, if smoking is to be discouraged. Local cigarette manufacturers are free to advertise in public, which is not what countries trying to curb smoking normally do.
Moreover, there needs to be stricter implementation of under-age sales ban and public place smoking fines should be harsher. Pakistan needs to adopt the measure used in developed countries, where cigarettes packs are not allowed to be displayed on the shelf - discouraging impulse purchases.
There should also be the case of even more higher penal tax in the form of excise duty on cigarette consumption to make economics of smoking worse for an addict and discourage youth from smoking.
The government needs to make the public realize that it is not only the retail sales prices that they pay for each pack of cigarette; it is much more than that. Surely, the billions that the government collects in taxes from tobacco consumers and companies need to be invested in health awareness campaigns.
How aggressively will the government take up efforts to discourage smoking beyond pictorial warnings is yet to be seen. But in a recent seminar on adverse effects of smoking on the global
o tobacco day, leading speakers were reportedly seen puffing the smoke circles during the seminar lunch. Talk about discouraging smokers.
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