Plain cigarette packs spur quitline calls: study

By Allison Bond NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Drab olive cigarette packs bearing a prominent quit-smoking helpline number, introduced more than a year ago in Australia, had a sizeable and sustained effect on interest in quitting, researchers say. "The results suggest the legislation does have a positive early impact (on smokers) and so other countries could feel more confident in introducing similar legislation," said Jane Young, a cancer epidemiologist at the Sydney School of Public Health, who led the study. In March 2006, cigarette packaging with graphic health warnings including photos of cancer-riddled lungs and gangrenous limbs was introduced in Australia. "(The labels) inform consumers about what might happen to them when they use the product," said Joanna Cohen, director of the Institute for Global Tobacco Control at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland.