​Cancer group bids to tackle young people smoking through controversial move

Cigarettes should be tinted green and each one emblazoned with “smoking kills” according to a cancer charity.

The move would discourage young people from taking up the habit, said Cancer Research UK.

More than one in five young Scots are hooked on nicotine – the highest proportion in the UK.

However manufacturing cigarettes in unpalatable colours with stark health warnings on each stick could tackle the problem the charity believes.

Scientist Dr Crawford Moodie, whose work is funded by the charity, said: “Cigarettes can be an important communication tool and that altering their appearance, with a health warning or an unappealing colour, can make them less desirable.

“Young people who start smoking are likely to continue to do so into adulthood, so anything that may deter smoking among this group could help to tackle the potential health repercussions in later life.”

George Butterworth, Cancer Research UK’s senior policy manager, said: “Too many young people are still taking up smoking in the UK.

“Government anti-smoking campaigns and tax rises on cigarettes remain the most effective methods to stop young people starting.

“We need to continue to explore innovative ways to turn young people off cigarettes to ensure that youth smoking rates continue to drop. This study shows that tactics like making the cigarettes themselves unappealing could be an effective way of doing this.”

But Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest, countered: “We were told that graphic health warnings and plain packaging would make cigarettes less desirable but there’s no evidence that either policy actually works.

“Printing a warning on the cigarette or changing the colour of the stick will achieve nothing other than highlight the failure of existing policies.”