Achi news desk-
Taking the warning from the box alone, cigarettes in Canada now advertise a pointed message.
“It’s going to reach smokers, but also to young people who might experiment by getting a cigarette from a friend, they might not see that health warning on the pack, but they’re going to see the health warning right on the cigarette,” said Canadian Cancer Society Senior policy analyst Rob Cunningham.
Written in English and French, smokers will now find one of six warnings stamped on each filter including:
- tobacco smoke harms children
- cigarettes cause cancer
- cigarettes cause impotence
- cigarettes cause leukemia
- poison in every puff
- cigarettes damage your organs
“It’s going to make the cigarette less attractive, less cool for children with their peers and also many children encourage their parents not to smoke, encourage them to give it up and so the these cigarette butts, in an ashtray, with the warnings providing more information for children when they have those discussions with their parents,” said Cunningham.
The new warning labels will be phased in across Canada.
Tobacco manufacturers had until April 30 to ensure that all king size cigarettes produced have the new health warning and by January 31, 2025, all regular size cigarettes produced need them.
As for retailers, they have a little more time. King size cigarettes can still be sold without the new labels until July 31 and regular size cigarettes can be sold without the new labels until April 30, 2025.
However, those familiar with tobacco are not convinced that these new regulations will make a difference to everyone.
“For children, it would probably be a good deterrent,” said Nathalie Lemire.
“For me, I’ve been a smoker since I was 12, unfortunately. I’ve made several attempts to quit smoking for the good of my health and I’m still smoking at 48, so those messages to me haven’t sunk in and probably never will.”
She said that although the new images and messages won’t work for her, she noticed them.
“I was in hospital for a long time, going back into the shops and asking for a pack of cigarettes and seeing one of them was like a preemie baby and I looked twice like, ‘Oh my God. ‘ They’re more disturbing than they used to be because we’ve gotten used to the pictures of the lung or emphysema or the guy with a hole in his neck, I remember that years ago back,” he said.
“They are disturbing. They might work for some people, for me it won’t. For children, I think to prevent the children from smoking, if I could have done that as a child, I probably wouldn’t smoke now.”
Liam Berry has yet to see the new packaging since he quit smoking tobacco cigarettes, but he is still not convinced they will be effective, especially as tobacco products have always had warnings and never prevented it in the past.
“I don’t know if it’s worth the time, probably not worth the money that goes into it,” he said.
“I can understand the need for that. They are trying to do some sort of prevention for it, it makes sense that people are informed, but I didn’t care when I was smoking tobacco cigarettes.”
These new rules came into effect on August 1, 2023, making Canada the first country in the world to require companies to print a warning on every single cigarette.
According to the Canadian Cancer Society, more than 45,000 Canadian deaths are the result of tobacco smoking each year and approximately 75 percent of lung cancer deaths are due to tobacco smoking across the country.
