A new study has backed the policy of removing branding from cigarette packets will as it has showed that the measure would succeed in compelling smokers abandon the habit.
The research findings have contradicted the claims made by the tobacco industry that such a policy would turn ineffective in deterring the smokers.
The report comes in the midst of a crucial voting on switching to plain packaging in England by the lawmakers in March this year.
If the MPs votes in favour of the move, England would become the second country in the world after Australia to bring the measure to combat the rise in number of smokers.
According to the researchers, plain packaging slashed the “unconscious trigger for smoking urges” that is said to be created by the tobacco products branding.
The study showed that the branding of such injurious products increase the amount of attention that young as well as occasional smokers paid to the health warnings.
Highlighting the findings of the study, Addiction editor-in-chief Professor Robert West said, “Even if standardized packaging had no effect at all on current smokers and only stopped one in 20 young people from being lured into smoking it would save about 2,000 lives each year.”
As the government had announced in January that it would be introducing legislation supporting unbranded, plain packs ahead of the general election, the analysts are expecting the sale of tobacco products in plain, unbranded packets as early as May 2016.
The findings of the study were published in the scientific journal Addiction.