Bigger warnings sought
Critics contend that plain packaging has done little to reduce smoking rate in Australia.
Most South Koreans think cigarette-pack graphic health warnings should be increased in size, while some believe they should cover the whole pack, according to a story in The Korea Herald citing the results of a poll that sought the opinions of 634 smokers and 866 non-smokers.
Not long ago, when graphic warnings were first suggested, it was said that, culturally, such warnings would not be acceptable in the country.
Currently, graphic warnings cover 50 percent of the two largest faces of packs – the front and the back.
Of the 1,500 people surveyed by the Korea Health Promotion Institute last year, 27.6 percent of adults and 29.2 percent of young people said graphic warnings should be enlarged.
Thirteen-point-one percent of those surveyed said the warnings should cover more than 90 percent of packs, while 17 percent of adults and 17.3 percent of adolescents said the entire pack should be wrapped in images showing the dangers of smoking.
Twenty-four-point-six percent of adults and 17.1 percent of young people supported the current 50 percent warnings.
The poll was said to have found also that people are ‘more impressed’ by pictorial warnings than by warning phrases alone. On a one-to-five scale, graphic warnings were said to have a 3.94 effect while warning phrases had a 2.41 effect.
South Korea’s smoking rate rose to 23.9 percent in 2016 from 22.6 percent in 2015.
The country’s smoking rate among men stood at 31 percent in 2015, the highest among the 15 member states of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development for which statistics are available.
