(Thumbnail Image: Donklephant)

British officials are discussing banning distinct labels on cigarette packages as part of an expansion of the country's ban on smoking in public places. Their goal is to cut the number of smokers in half.

We’re looking at perspectives on the proposed ban from Al Jazeera- English, The Independent, the Daily Mail Online, ITN News and Manx Radio.

The U.K.'s health agency says its initial anti-smoking efforts have contributed to a 25 percent decline in the number of smokers. Still, the government says, it spends 2.7 billion pounds a year on healthcare costs for smokers.  
 
“By 2020 we want to see the total number of smokers halved. So from 2 in 10 of adults today to 1 in 10. It’s ambitious but I think public moods about smoking are changing.”  (The Independent)

The National Health Service believes requiring plain packaging of cigarettes will help by reducing the number of people taking up the smoking habit.
 
The Secretary of State for Health, Andy Burnham made a statement earlier this week stating that:

'Most smokers start before they are 18, so we have to discourage children and young people from ever starting. Now that we’ve banned advertising and will soon see an end to attractive displays in shops, the only remaining method of advertising tobacco is the packaging.”

 
However, some are not convinced plain packaging will accomplish anything. The Daily Mail offers the perspective of one skeptic, Simon Clark from Forest, a smokers lobbying group.
 

“Now I’m a non-smoker I’ve been going into shops all my adult life, like millions of other non-smokers. We’ve seen cigarettes behind the counter. We’ve seen them in colored packages. We’ve never ever taken up smoking as a result. People don’t impulse buy cigarettes.”

Experts are divided on the impact of plain packaging.  An Australian study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health last November found that teens were less likely to buy cigarettes with plain, boring or unattractive packaging. Melanie Wakefield, co-author of the study said:
 

“We found that when branding is progressively removed from a cigarette pack, adolescents not only perceive the packs to be less attractive, they associate the brand with people who have less favorable attributes. They also assume the cigarettes have a more negative taste.”

But clinical psychologist Dr. Fiona McPherson is hesitant to accept this premise.


“I don’t see how plain packaging is going to have any effect at all really. I can’t see what the mechanism is meant to be there.”

So what do you think of the British plan? Do you think plain packaging will reduce smoking rates?