New smoking warnings celebrated
An important public health measure came into effect June 19 when a series of 16 new picture health warnings were required to appear on cigarette packages across Canada.
These new cigarette health warnings are a significant advance that will reduce smoking and help prevent cancer.
In 2001 Canada was the first country to require picture warnings. Now at least 57 other countries have done so. This international progress should not be surprising - a picture does indeed say a thousand words.
The new warnings now on and inside packages once again position Canada as a global leader in this area. Canada’s health warnings covering 75 per cent of the package front and back - an increase from 50 per cent - are among the world’s largest and most effective. Previous picture warnings were among the factors contributing to a decrease in smoking prevalence in Canada from 24 per cent in 2000 prior to the warnings to 17 per cent in 2010.
Not surprisingly, the tobacco industry strongly opposes the new warnings, which itself is a clear signal of their success. If the new warnings would not reduce cigarette sales, then tobacco companies would not be opposed.
Another important feature of the warnings is the inclusion of a toll-free quit-line number on every package. This will give smokers, wherever they live, easy access to free advice on quitting.
While the warnings are a clear victory for the health of Canadians, they are also an example of how Canada is an international innovator in public health policy. Such innovation is worthy of recognition. We commend Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq for bringing this health initiative forward, and acknowledge the all-party support she received to make it happen.
Dan Demers, director
Public Issues for the Canadian Cancer Society
Ottawa
4 Comments
I am a smoker, and I do not even notice the pictures on the packages. I would like to see more help in quitting smoking, like perhaps giving away nicotine gum, patches or new ways to help us smokers quit. As a smoker who is currently trying to quit, it would help us out more by aiding us, the pictures do nothing!
Dan Demers, keep on dreeming. If you are serious than prohibit the government from getting millions from the sales. What a hipocrisy.
Very happy to hear that smoking is down 25% from 2000! That is fantastic news for all of us, especially for the former smokers who took the bull by the horns and quit: congratulations to them. Also to everyone else who will not lose a loved one to smoker’s diseases, and for all the money these new non-smokers, and the people who never started, will save due to not smoking. Keep up the good work and I do believe that the stomach turning reality of smoking as portrayed on cigarette packs goes a long way to show what a lie the ‘glamour and rebellion’ of smoking is. It’s a corporate scam, nothing more, and smokers are their suckers - literally and figurative.
Clear victory? Subscribe to reality. A co-worker of mine recently confessed he only knew there were pictures on tobacco products because of the media coverage concerning these new labels. He never noticed they were there. Most people do notice, and keep smoking, buy new packs, notice, etc., until finally whatever message on the label is lost to desensitization. Labels do nothing. Stop fooling yourself.
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