Graphic health warnings? No fear

The introduction of standardized packaging in Ireland will not force smokers to quit their habit nor prevent smoking initiation, according to Patrick Basham, who co-authored The Plain Truth: Does Packaging Influence Smoking?

Writing in The Irish Times, Basham, who directs the Democracy Institute and is a Cato Institute adjunct scholar, took aim at both the Irish Minister of Health James Reilly, who has declared his intention to introduce standardized cigarette packs next year, and the EU’s health commissioner, Tonio Borg, who wants to mandate gruesome, super-sized warnings on packs of cigarettes as part of a revised Tobacco Products Directive. (Both institutes have been the recipients of tobacco-industry funding.)

“Though fear is both policymakers’ weapon of choice for stopping people from smoking, it simply won’t work,” wrote Basham, who later in his piece pointed out that several independent research studies published during the past two years had found graphic health warnings to be an utter failure.

Basham’s piece can be read in full at http://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/terror-campaign-directed-at-smoking-applies-a-faulty-logic-1.1469572.