Canada will soon become the first country in the world where warning labels must appear on individual cigarettes.
The move was first announced last year by Health Canada and is aimed at helping people quit the habit. The regulations take effect Aug. 1 and will be phased in. King-size cigarettes will be the first to feature the warnings and will be sold in stores by the end of July 2024, followed by regular-size cigarettes, and little cigars with tipping paper and tubes by the end of April 2025.
“This bold step will make health warning messages virtually unavoidable,” Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett said Wednesday.
The warnings — in English and French — include “poison in every puff,” “tobacco smoke harms children” and “cigarettes cause impotence.”
Health Canada said the strategy aims to reduce tobacco use below 5% by 2035. New regulations also strengthen health-related graphic images displayed on packages of tobacco.
Bennett’s statement said tobacco use kills 48,000 Canadians every year.
Doug Roth, chief executive of the Heart & Stroke charity, said the bold measure will ensure that dangers to lung health cannot be missed.
The Canadian Cancer Society said the measure will reduce smoking and the appeal of cigarettes, thus preventing cancer and other diseases.
Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society, said health messaging will be conveyed in every puff and during every smoke break. Canada, he added, will have the best tobacco health warning system in the world.
Tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship are banned in Canada and warnings on cigarette packs have existed since 1972.
In 2001, Canada became the first country to require tobacco companies to include picture warnings on the outside of cigarette packages and include inserts with health messages.
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
9 Responses
Will they write that about smoking weed?
History has a way of repeating itself. Big Pharma has replaced Big Tobacco as the new addicted killer. Canada after a multi decade ban has now allowed them to directly advertise on MSM, billboards and social media which is a huge problem for bias conflict in news reporting. Ads from Pfizer and Ozempic have replaced long-gone Players and duMaurier cigarette ones.
this is ridiculous
just ban it outright
these images don’t help one bit, and they are repugnant and disgusting.
those who wish to smoke or are addicted to smoking can use E-Cigarettes or leave the country
This is so correct on part of 🇨🇦, because it is so halachcally clear, that every single puff is a new violation of a מצוה עשה מן התורה של ונשמרתם מאד לנפשותיכם
How about the Canadian government also adding this פסוק to every 🚬?
Let them do that about Toeiva
How about posting on donut boxes, poison in every bite
This won’t work. The only thing that’s really effective is making smoking socially unacceptable.
They might have been more successful if they wrote things like “smoking makes me look stupid,” or “at the end of this stick is an idiot,” with an arrow pointing to the smoker.
Zaltzvasser is correct.
The majority of those who start smoking, and get hooked, are teens and twenty somethings, who are deeply motivated by social acceptance but are not as concerned about health issues and the consequences of bad choices like smoking.
A far more effective message is “smoking is for losers”.
Well anyone who says this is shaveh l’kol nefesh is deluding themselves on second day yomtov…let’s be real folks.