Increasing the size of the pictorial warnings on cigarette packets have little impact on tobacco consumers, said a study conducted by an insurance company.
Increasing the size of the pictorial warnings on cigarette packets have little impact on tobacco consumers, said a study conducted by an insurance company.
The Supreme Court had recently ruled that the size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products be increased from 20 per cent of the package to 85 per cent. However, in a survey carried out by ICICI Lombard, there has been little change in the smoking habits of over 70 per cent smokers after the increasing in the size of the warning graphics.
The new guidelines were made effective from April 1 this year.
The insurance company had conducted the nationwide survey on the age group of 22 to 45 years, and collected the data of about 1,000 respondents. The survey found that 41 per cent of the respondents believe that a stricter imposition on banning smoking in public places would be widely appreciated, while only 24 per cent of those surveyed stated that increase in ‘sin taxes’ would compel smokers to give up the habit. About 72 per cent of respondents said that pictorial warnings or plain packaging made little impact on their smoking habits, the survey stated.
Speaking about the impact, one of the smokers said that the sale of loose cigarettes could be one of the reasons for failing to achieve the desired impact. “People don’t buy cigarette packets, which keeps them at bay from the pictorial warming or change in the size of the warming,” said the smoker, on the condition of anonymity.
One of the most alarming findings of the survey was that only 10 per cent of the respondents felt the need to buy a health insurance policy as a measure to combat the problem.
“It emphasises that as insurers and as a society, we are yet a long way away from spreading full awareness about the ill-effects of smoking,” said Sanjay Datta ICICI Lombard general insurance company chief.
