'Gross' disease images best at making smokers quit To make smokers quit and discourage others from starting,

put graphic images of mouth tumours, cancerous lungs and tar-covered teeth and gums on cigarette packets. That's the message from countries that have already made these kinds of graphic images compulsory. "The most effective are the large, emotionally arousing pictures. The grosser the better," says David Hammond, author of a soon-to-be-published international review of the effect of cigarette-packet warnings on cigarette consumption. "Subtle doesn't appear to work." David Hammond, autor de un artculo internacional (pronto a ser publicado) sobre el efecto en el consumo del cigarro debido a este tipo de advertencias puestas en las cajetillas, dice que las imgenes grandes y las que captan la atencin son las ms efectivas. Mientras ms fuertes mejor. Las imgenes sutiles parecen no funcionar, agreg el autor. "Studies in France, Belgium and the UK consistently demonstrated that warnings with shocking images, such as rotten teeth, or throat cancer, were rated as most effective," says the review. They're also the ones that people remember, according to studies in Australia, Canada and Europe. El artculo expone que estudios en Francia, Blgica y Reino Unido han demostrado con creces que este tipo de advertencias junto a imgenes fuertes como dientes deteriorados o cncer de laringe son las ms efectivas. Y adems, otros estudios hechos en Australia, Canad y Europa demostraron que estas imgenes son las que ms recuerdan las personas. Por otra parte, plantea que las cuatro propagandas que ms recuerdan los fumadores en Australia y las nominadas como las ms efectivas, son todas las imgenes que representan los efectos en la salud como tumor en un pulmn, un beb enfermo en un hospital, cncer bucal y un pie gangrenoso.

"The top four warnings recalled by Australian smokers and nominated as most effective all depicted graphic health effects, including a picture of a lung tumour, a sick baby in a hospital, a picture of mouth cancer and a gangrenous foot," says Hammond's review. The evidence in the review vindicates the US decision to make graphic warnings on cigarette packets mandatory in two years' time. Last week the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began asking the public and interested parties to comment on 36 proposed

images. Pictures must cover at least half the front and back of the packet and will also cover 20 per cent of all cigarette adverts. La evidencia en el artculo justifica la decisin de Estados Unidos de poner imgenes de advertencias en las cajetillas de cigarros de manera obligatoria dos veces en el ao. La semana pasada, el Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos de los Estados Unidos (HHS) comenz a pedirle a grupos interesados y no interesados que comentaran sobre 36 imgenes propuestas. Las propagandas deben concentrarse en un 20% de los anuncios y deben cubrir al menos la mitad de la parte delantera y trasera de una cajetilla. But it's hard to work out exactly how effective the images in any particular country are. Hammond points out that because other anti-smoking measures are often introduced at the same time, such as increased taxes and marketing bans, it's impossible to tease out the effect of the images alone. But other studies reveal that a third of current smokers say that the warnings motivate them to quit, while the same proportion of former smokers say the images help them continue to abstain.