Researchers have found that young smokers often ignore graphic warning images on cigarette packets but the fear of rejection from society due to the habit seems to have a more positive effect.
Doctors and health experts have time and again listed the harmful effects of cigarette smoking. Several countries have passed laws that ban smoking in public places, near schools, bars and pubs. Such laws have worked to a certain extent. But 17 percent of the general population is still addicted to the habit of smoking.
Compulsory warnings on cigarette packets, which show diseased livers, rotting teeth and damaged lungs have not worked as effectively as claimed among young smokers, according to a new research.
Researchers from the University of Otago found that if young smokers were made aware of how unattractive they looked and smelled while smoking a cigarette, it had a greater impact. Researchers listed few taglines such as "Kissing a smoker is not a turn-on", "Everyone can smell a smoker", and "Smoking stuffs your lungs", that showed results among the 18-30 age group, according to the study.
According to a report from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in five deaths in the United States is caused due to smoking and exposure to second hand smoking. The annual cost to health care units for smoking-related diseases is $96 billion each year. Use of tobacco is the leading and the most preventable cause of death in the U.S. The decline in the rate of people smoking in the U.S. has been slow since 2005. In 2010, 19.3 percent adults were current smokers compared to 20.9 percent in 2005. Nearly 88 percent of adults who reported smoking started at age 18.
Otago University professor Janet Hoek and her team have been given $503,000 to create and promote effective smokefree messages among young adults. A previous study found that a group of 17 young adults strongly reacted to the warnings highlighting short-term health risks, sexual undesirability and social spurn.
"Social or cosmetic risks are more immediate and can't be as easily rationalised," Hoek said. "These messages reduced smoking's symbolic value, tainted the identity participants sought, and foregrounded the risk that non-smokers would reject them as unattractive."
The study also found that smoking was no longer a style statement in today's generation but "it's something that people are a bit ashamed of," Hoek added.
