TORONTO - When it comes to choosing cigarettes, it seems the prettier the package, the safer the smokes appear to the buyer.
A Canadian study says packages in lighter colours, bearing words like "smooth" and "filter," tend to make the purchaser believe the cigarettes inside are less dangerous to their health.
More than 600 adults, including smokers and non-smokers, compared a variety of fictitious cigarette packages.
And 80 per cent said they believed the tobacco in packages labelled "smooth" would be less hazardous than the tobacco in packages labelled "regular."
Most respondents also felt smokes that came in a light blue box were healthier than those packaged in a dark coloured box.
The researchers are calling for an expansion of the list of words banned from cigarette packaging and for plain standardized packaging for all brands.
The study, lead by University of Waterloo health studies professor David Hammond, is published in the U-K-based Journal of Public Health.
?? The Canadian Press, 2009