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In so far as relapse is concerned, there is really only anecdotal evidence, plus retrospective reports of smokers saying the warnings help. For example, in an evaluation of Australian Graphic Health Warnings, 35% of long-term ex-smokers said that the warnings had "helped them to stay quit", and many participants in group discussions felt that the pictures helped deglamorise smoking and helped reinforce the decision of quitters to stay quit.¹ Among recent quitters, 69% nominated a specific picture and its associated health warning as “most effective” at discouraging smoking. The most popular were “smoking causes throat and mouth cancer” (21%), “Smoking causes lung cancer” (14%), “smoking causes peripheral vascular disease” (10%), and “smoking harms unborn babies” (9%). However, it is difficult studying effects on quitters because one needs to control for exposure to packs, a likely determinant of relapse.

1.     Australian Government (2008) Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Graphic Health Warnings on Tobacco Product Packaging. Department of Health and Ageing.