Plain packaging for cigarettes can have a massive impact on health, says the World Health Organization, if it becomes a global normal. And, according to the BBC, moves to introduce standardised packaging in the UK, France and Australia will influence policy around the globe.
But will this address the smoking problem adequately? The Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association said policy was being ‘driven more by dogma than hard fact’ while the WHO says move kills the glamour and attractiveness of smoking, adding that evidence shows the measure curbs smoking rates.
With around six million deaths each year being linked to smoking, the WHO claims that plain, or standardised, packaging with a uniform colour across all brands except for health warnings and brand names are in small, non-distinctive lettering will make a difference.
Australia introduced plain packs in 2012 and data shows that smoking rates fell by a ‘significant’ additional 0.55% – the equivalent of 108,000 people – between December 2012 and September 2015, the WHO reported.
Benn McGrady, from the WHO, said: “We think the evidence is now so strong that it’s likely we’re witnessing the globalisation of plain packaging – particularly after countries as influential as the UK, France and Australia have implemented the measure.”
Ireland, Norway, Singapore, Canada, Chile, Brazil, Panama, New Zealand and Belgium are reportedly at various stages of considering plain packets.
But Giles Roca, director general of the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association, argued anti-tobacco laws were being driven by dogma more than facts. Citing Australia as an example, he said: “Plain packaging as a measure itself has been proven not to work and has made no impact on long-term smoking trends.
“There has been no acceleration in decline brought about by the policy, whilst the illegal market has increased markedly.”
Laws or higher prices, it appears, will not force people to stop smoking. Like many ‘bad’ habits, it requires a commitment from the smoker to break the habit.
The National Council for Hypnotherapy (NCH) says clinical hypnotherapy has approved success rate for helping people to quit. With more than 1,800 qualified therapists across the UK the NCH is well-placed to offer assistance to smokers.
It says a bad or unwanted habit, like smoking, is a learned behaviour that has become something over which we feel we have no control. There’s a ‘little voice’ that always tells you to do something when you don’t want to do it. But that little voice is part of you and is part of your protection system.
“As a species we evolved to survive and thrive so our subconscious, the heart of our being, is always creating mechanisms that support this,” says the NCH. “However, sometimes things get distorted and what your subconscious thinks is a protection mechanism becomes an unwanted habit that causes you upset rather than allowing you to survive and thrive.”
But the good news is that we are in control and can change how we react to certain situations and protect ourselves in ways that are healthy and which allow us to succeed and grow stronger in body and mind.
“You just need to know how to change it, and to believe you can,” adds the NCH.
In the first session with a hypnotherapist, they will ask the smoker how the habit started and often find that this stems from our desire to blend in, to become part of a group, and of course in evolutionary terms we need to be accepted by a group as our protection comes from being within groups – that is how we evolved and survived.
The therapist will then employ one of a variety of techniques to allow the smoker to end that unwanted habit. This is done by working with the subconscious mind and, in some instances, the habit can be broken in just one session.