Canada is taking a pioneering step by printing warning directly onto individual cigarette, aiming to deter young people from starting smoking and providing support to existing smokers.
There will be a start of the new rules, which will feature warnings printed in both English and French, such as “Cigarettes cause cancer” and “Poison in every puff.”Starting next year, Canadians will begin to see the new warning labels.
By July 2024, manufacturers must ensure that all king-size cigarettes sold have the warnings, and by April 2025, they must include the warning on all regular-size cigarettes and little cigars with tipping paper and tubes.
The phrases will appear by the filter, including warnings about harming children, damaging organs and causing impotence and leukaemia. In May, Health Canada said the new regulations “will make it virtually impossible to avoid health warnings” on tobacco products.
Canada plans to print a second set of six phrases on cigarettes in 2026 as part of its efforts to reduce tobacco use to less than 5% by 2035. This decision follows a 75-day public consultation period that authorities launched last year.
Canada has required the printing of warning labels on cigarette packages since 1989 and in 2000 the country adopted pictorial warning requirements for tobacco product packages.
Additional warning labels
Health Canada said it plans to expand on warnings by printing additional warning labels inside the packages themselves, and introducing a new external warning messages. Dr Robert Schwartz, of the University of Toronto, told BBC News it was good news that Canada was “moving forward with this innovation”.
“Health warnings on individual cigarettes will likely push some people who smoke to make a quit attempt and may prevent some young people from starting to smoke,” he said.
He also pointed to New Zealand, which has introduced very low nicotine cigarettes, as a leader in limiting the use of tobacco. Mr Schwartz added: “These are the kinds of measures needed if we are serious about decreasing tobacco use.”
Tobacco use continues to kill 48,000 Canadians each year. “Tobacco use continues to be one of Canada’s most significant public health problems, and is the country’s leading preventable cause of disease and premature death in Canada,” Public Services Minister Jean-Yves Duclos has previously said.
The Canadian Cancer Society, Canada’s Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Lung Association have all praised the warning labels, saying they hope the measures will deter people, especially young people, from taking up smoking in the first place.
Many widely regard cigarette smoking as a risk factor for lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke.In Canada, the rate of smokers aged 15 years or older is around 10%, according to a national 2021 Tobacco and Nicotine survey but electronic cigarette use has been on the rise.