Soon after the first series of rotating health warnings were introduced in 1987, a Victorian survey showed that smokers were already aware of and able to recall the warnings.(50) South Australian research published in 1988(51) showed that recall among South Australian smokers was slightly less than in Victoria.
More recent surveys from these states have shown that after these initial encouraging results, smoker awareness of the warnings has changed little. Of the new warnings, 'Smoking causes lung cancer' was the most frequently recalled; however even two years after its disappearance from cigarette packets, the old warning, 'Smoking is a health hazard', remained the most commonly recalled warning. Victorian data are available for 1987(50) and 1988,(52) and South Australian data for 1987(51) and 1989(53) (Table 5.7).
The failure of smokers' recall of the new warnings to increase to any great degree over time is an obvious cause for concern. Wilson et al comment that the effectiveness of the warnings was flawed from the start, due to compromises reached on wording and appearance of the new texts on the packages(51) (see Section 5.6 above). Authors of the Victorian Smoking and Health Project Evaluation studies observe that higher awareness of health warnings might be maintained by more frequent changing of the text.(52) It will be interesting to measure the effect of the new requirements for labelling under the Federal Tobacco Regulations(33) on consumer awareness.