An Otago University researcher is calling on the Government to introduce plain packaging and bigger health warnings on cigarette boxes.
Marketing Professor Janet Hoek gauged the attitudes of nearly 300 young smokers to different tobacco packaging.
She says 37% of smokers who were shown a packet of cigarettes with plain packaging and a large graphic photo of neck cancer said they would reduce their tobacco consumption.
Forty percent said they would make an attempt to quit smoking.
The research has been published in the international journal Tobacco Control.
Professor Hoek says Australia is moving to introduce plain packaging by 2012 and New Zealand should follow suit.
