“Poison in every puff.”
Those words and others will eventually appear on every individual cigarette in Canada given that as of Tuesday, a new set of Health Canada regulations requiring warning labels on individual cigarettes comes into effect.
By doing so, Canada becomes the first country in the world with such a policy.
“A message that says ‘poison in every puff’ is something that is very effective,” said Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society.
“It’ll be there during every smoke break and it’ll be there when kids experiment with borrowing a cigarette from a friend. They may not see the package, but they’re going to see that warning on every cigarette – a warning on every cigarette can’t be missed.”
With the regulations now in effect, manufacturers have until the end of July 2024 to ensure the warnings are on all king-size cigarettes sold, followed by regular-size cigarettes and little cigars with tipping paper and tubes by the end of April 2025.
The wording will be written in English and French on the paper around the filter. Blunt statements, including “Tobacco smoke harms children” and “Cigarettes cause cancer,” will be among the first six messages to appear.
A second set of six is expected to be printed on cigarettes in 2026. Organizations funded by tobacco companies have opposed the push toward stronger messaging, including the latest step.
Several studies in Canada and elsewhere show the effectiveness of printing warnings on each cigarette, Cunningham said.
“It’s going to be there for youth who are not yet addicted.… It’s going to be there for new Canadians who immigrated from a country where awareness of the health effects is less, and where health education remains especially important, and that can be done through the cigarettes itself and through the package,” he said.
“While it’s not going to prevent all smokers from quitting — that’s never the expectation — it’s going to have an impact on some. It’s increased motivation to quit, it’s going to prompt discussion, it’s going to prompt attempts to quit and that’s great — that’s exactly what we want.”
Tobacco use remains one of Canada’s most significant public health problems, and is the country’s leading preventable cause of disease and premature death, former health minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in a May 31 statement announcing the new warning labels.
Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship are banned in Canada, with warnings on cigarette packs dating back to 1972.
In 2001, Canada became the first country to require tobacco companies to print pictorial warnings on the outside of cigarette packages and include inserts with health-promoting messages.
More than 130 countries have followed suit, the Canadian Cancer Society indicates.
To bring smoking rates down further, the organization and other advocacy groups have called for a comprehensive strategy of beefed-up taxation, legislation and programming.
Price promotions and flavoured products — allowed in some provinces — should be banned, Cunningham said.
In May, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Lung Association and the Heart and Stroke Foundation published an open letter to premiers of all 10 provinces saying they should push for efforts to reduce smoking during settlement negotiations with three major tobacco companies that they sued years ago to recoup health-care costs.
Provinces are collectively seeking $500 billion in damages, and the three advocacy groups said at least 10 per cent of the money from a settlement should go toward smoking cessation efforts.
“There’s so much more that we need to do,” Cunningham said.
“The sooner we can do it, the sooner we are going to have an impact to reduce smoking and improve public health.”
— with files from Global News’ Nathaniel Dove and The Canadian Press
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