Plain cigarette packs devoid of any labels or branding could keep non-smokers from turning to the habit and may cause smokers to go through fewer smokes a day, scientists say.
Several published studies cite the results in Australia, which took branding and labeling from tobacco packaging 2 years ago, leaving only graphic health warnings in place.
The studies in the journal Addiction reported that the move led young experimental smokers to concentrate more on those health warnings.
There is also strong evidence plain packaging may cut down smoking rates in current smokers by reducing the packages' impact as an unconscious trigger of smoking urges, researchers said.
In spite of aggressive opposition from the tobacco industry, Australia passed laws requiring all cigarettes to be offered in a plain green package whose only labeling consisted of health warnings and graphic images of the damaging results of smoking.
Since the law's passage, smoking in outdoor areas of restaurants, cafes, and bars, while still allowed, declined and fewer smokers kept their packs visible on tables, researchers reported.
"Even if standardized packaging had no effect at all on current smokers and only stopped 1 in 20 young people from being lured into smoking it would save about 2,000 lives each year," Addiction editor-in-chief Professor Robert West said in a statement.
Britain is set to follow Australia's example, as its parliament will vote in May to introduce similar standardized, non-branded cigarette packs. If passed, the law would go into effect in 2016.
The tobacco industry is expected to oppose the move, as it did in Australia.
The industry claims standardized packs infringe on its intellectual property rights concerning branding, and have suggested plain packaging will only lead to an increase in counterfeiting and smuggling.
However, Ann McNeill, an addiction expert at King's College London, said tobacco companies should be satisfied they're even allowed to sell their products at all.
"Arguably, for an addictive product that kills so many of its users, the tobacco industry should consider itself fortunate that, purely through historical precedent, it is allowed to sell its toxic products at all, let alone try to make them attractive through the packaging," says McNeill, who wrote an introduction to the published studies.
"However, it is evidence on the likely public health impact that is the primary basis for the policy on standardized packaging," she says.
