Peace Jo, Wilson Nick, Hoek Janet, Edwards Richard, Thomson George
Department of Public Health, University of Otago, Wellington School of Medicine, PO Box 7343, Wellington South, New Zealand.
N Z Med J. 2009 Sep 25;122(1303):90-6.
In September 2008, the New Zealand (NZ) Commerce Commission issued a warning to the major tobacco companies to remove "light" and "mild" descriptors from cigarette packaging. Despite published evidence that suggested tobacco companies had started colour-coding their packs in anticipation of the Commission's decision, the investigation did not consider more general misleading packaging. This study explored changes in tobacco packaging that had been introduced to the New Zealand market, by surveying descriptors used on cigarette packs after the Commerce Commission's warning.
A convenience sample of discarded cigarette packs were collected in four cities and six towns/rural areas between November 2008 and January 2009. The majority of packs (93%) were collected in the capital city (Wellington). Information on the descriptors and pack colours was analysed.
Four percent of the 1208 packs collected still included the terms "light" and "mild". Almost half the packs (42%) used a colour word (e.g. red, blue, gold) as a descriptor to indicate mildness or strength. A further 18% used other words that suggested mildness/strength (e.g. "subtle", "mellow"). A quarter of packs used a descriptor that did not connote either mildness or strength; however, the majority of these packs still appeared to be colour-coded.
Although the words "light" and "mild" have been largely removed from tobacco packaging in the New Zealand market, these words have been replaced with associated colours or other words that may continue to communicate "reduced harm" messages to consumers. Further research to test how smokers interpret the new words and colours, and how these influence their behaviour, is desirable. However, government-mandated generic (plain) packaging would remove the opportunity to communicate misleading claims and so would afford the highest level of consumer protection.
2008年9月，新西兰商业委员会向各大烟草公司发出警告，要求其从香烟包装上去除“淡味”和“柔和”等描述词。尽管有公开证据表明烟草公司已开始对烟包进行颜色编码，以应对委员会的决定，但该调查并未考虑更普遍的误导性包装问题。本研究通过调查商业委员会发出警告后香烟包装上使用的描述词，探索了引入新西兰市场的烟草包装变化。
2008年11月至2009年1月期间，在四个城市和六个城镇/农村地区收集了丢弃的香烟包作为便利样本。大部分烟包（93%）是在首都惠灵顿收集的。对描述词和烟包颜色信息进行了分析。
在收集的1208个烟包中，4%仍包含“淡味”和“柔和”字样。近一半的烟包（42%）使用颜色词（如红色、蓝色、金色）作为描述词来表示淡味或强度。另有18%使用其他暗示淡味/强度的词（如“淡雅”“醇厚”）。四分之一的烟包使用的描述词既不表示淡味也不表示强度；然而，这些烟包中的大多数似乎仍进行了颜色编码。
尽管“淡味”和“柔和”字样在很大程度上已从新西兰市场的烟草包装上去除，但这些词已被相关颜色或其他词取代，这些颜色或词可能会继续向消费者传达“危害降低”的信息。需要进一步研究以测试吸烟者如何理解这些新词和颜色，以及它们如何影响吸烟者的行为。然而，政府强制推行通用（素面）包装将消除传达误导性声明的机会，从而提供最高水平的消费者保护。
