Plain brown wrapping accompanied by graphic health warnings covering up three quarters of the front of the pack for all tobacco products was launched in Australia on December 1, 2012. At this moment, it is the only country in the world to have done so.
The researchers sought to find out the effects the policy have in the early stages, and whether it helped control the demand of tobacco, stress its harms, and boost thoughts to quit.
About 536 cigarette smokers in the Australian state of Victoria were interviewed last November 2012 when plain packs were already available, in the run-up to, and immediately after the execution of the legislation entailing all tobacco sold at retail outlets to be enclosed in plain packs.
Roughly, one out of four or 27.7 percent were still using branded packs with smaller health warnings and three out of four or 72.3 percent were smoking cigarettes from plain packs.
The participants were asked about satisfaction, quality, and thoughts about the harms of smoking and quitting. .
In comparison with smokers still using branded packs, the plain pack smokers were 66 percent more likely to think their cigarettes were cheaper than a year ago and they were 70 percent more likely to say they found them less pleasing. There is also an average of 81 percent chance of quitting at least once a day during the preceding week and rate quitting now more than ever in their lives.
As the legislation date grew closer, the reactions of those using brand packs corresponded closely to those who smoke in plain packs in terms of the appeal of smoking.
This could merely mirror the reduced likelihood of being able to smoke from a brand pack or "social contagion," suggest the authors.
"The finding that smokers smoking from a plain pack evidenced more frequent thought about, and priority for quitting, than branded pack smokers is important, since frequency of thoughts about quitting has strong predictive validity in prospective studies for actually making a quit attempt", they concluded.
"Overall, the introductory effects we observed are consistent with the broad objectives of the plain packaging legislation. We await further research to examine more durable effects on smokers and any effects on youth.", they added.
The study was published in the July 22 issue of online journal BMJ Open.
