Cigarette warning labels are about to get even harder to ignore in Canada | CBC News - Adam Miller:
May 31, 2023 - "Starting Aug. 1, Canada will become the first country to put warning labels on individual cigarettes.... Health Canada has announced new warning labels to be printed directly on cigarettes in an effort to deter new smokers, encourage quitting and reduce tobacco-related deaths — a world first.... There will be multiple sets of six warnings on the cigarettes themselves that will change in rotation with messages like: 'Cigarettes cause cancer,' 'Cigarettes damage your organs,' 'Tobacco smoke harms children' and 'Poison in every puff.'
"Health Canada will also [mandate] new health warnings on cigarette packaging, taking up a minimum of 75 per cent of the main display area of the package, that can be updated with the latest research available without having to change the regulations.
"'Having a warning on every cigarette sold in Canada is a world precedent-setting measure,' said Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society.... I expect that many countries internationally will follow this Canadian world first.'
"The regulations will begin to come into effect as of Aug. 1. Tobacco companies will be required to implement the first sets of restrictions for retail on king-size cigarettes (83-85 millimetres in length) by July 31, 2024, on regular-size cigarettes (70-73 millimetres in length) and on small cigars by April 30, 2025.
"A new round of 14 picture warnings will also be required to appear on the outside of cigarette packaging by April 30, 2024, with a second new set of 14 picture warnings to appear two years later. There will also be updated messages on the inside of cigarette packages required at retail stores by April 30, 2024....
"The federal government's decision was announced on Wednesday on what is also World No Tobacco Day and is part of Canada's Tobacco Strategy, which aims to achieve less than five per cent tobacco use by 2035. 'We are taking action by being the first country in the world to label individual cigarettes with health warning messages,' Associate Minister of Health and Minister for Mental Health and Addictions Carolyn Bennett said in a news statement.... Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said ... 'Our government is using every evidence-based tool at our disposal to help protect the health of Canadians, especially young people'....
"Cynthia Callard, the executive director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, said the changes to cigarettes and packaging have been in development for a number of years — but they were 'worth the wait.' 'As they did 20-plus years ago with the world's first picture-based warnings, Health Canada is breaking new ground in finding ways to better communicate the harms of these consumer products," she said. 'Hopefully other package reforms will soon follow'....
"A 2021 Chinese study published in BMC Public Health found that graphic warning labels on cigarette packs was associated with high levels of intention to quit smoking among current smokers in Shanghai, and the findings suggested implementing the labels 'would discourage smoking in China.' A 2006 study published in the BMJ by a group of Canadian and international researchers ... found gaps in knowledge among smokers and concluded that large, graphic warnings on cigarette packaging 'are more effective in communicating the health risks of smoking.'"
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/canada-cigarette-warning-labels-1.6860301
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