Graphic warnings: Who heeds them?

New graphic warnings on cigarette packs sold in Jordan are likely to be ineffectual, according to a straw poll conducted by The Jordan Times on Sunday.

Since the beginning of this year the Ministry of Health has required tobacco manufacturers to place bigger graphic warnings on cigarette packs as part of the country’s obligations under the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC).

The images are said to be aimed at raising awareness among smokers about the diseases caused by tobacco smoking and smoking’s effect on the surrounding environment.

Although the piece in the Jordan Times might not have had the intellectual rigor of a scientific study, it provided graphic insights into the thinking of ordinary smokers.

Comments included: “Whatever they are going to place on the tobacco packs, I will not quit smoking unless I want to.”

Also: “These pictorials have no effect. I open the pack and smoke a cigarette without paying any attention to the images.”

And: “I don’t care what pictures they put on the cigarette packet. I started smoking when I was 18, and I haven’t stopped since then.”

This last quote was made by somebody who said that smoking for him was a pleasure.

The health ministry said the new graphic images were adopted after a study conducted by the King Hussein Cancer Centre’s cancer control office indicated that they would increase the motivation of about 25 percent of smokers to quit.

The full story is at http://jordantimes.com/article/anti-tobacco-pictorials-fail-to-sway-smokers.