Canada will soon have health warnings illustrated on individual cigarettes by 2024.
On Wednesday, Health Canada announced the country will be the first in the world to have health warnings printed directly on individual cigarettes.
Today on #WorldNoTobaccoDay, I announced that 🇨🇦 will become the first country in the world to label individual cigarettes with health warnings. pic.twitter.com/6RtgYi0pTh
— Carolyn Bennett (@Carolyn_Bennett) May 31, 2023
The new Tobacco Products Appearance, Packaging and Labelling Regulations is part of the government’s continued efforts to help adults quit smoking, protect youth and non-tobacco users from nicotine addiction, and further reduce the appeal of tobacco.
In addition, the regulations will support Canada’s Tobacco Strategy and its target of reaching less than five per cent tobacco use by 2035.
“Canada is now a global leader of the pack when it comes to health warning regimes for cigarettes. Tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable disease and death in Canada and these important new measures will protect youth and support current smokers in their efforts to quit,” CEO of the Heart & Stroke Foundation Doug Roth said in a statement on Wednesday.
The health warnings will be printed on the tipping paper of individual cigarettes, little cigars, tubes, and other tobacco products. These regulations will come into effect on Aug. 1, 2023, and will be implemented through a phased approach until 2024.
King size cigarettes will be the first to feature the individual health warnings and will be sold by retailers in Canada by the end of July 2024. Then, regular size cigarettes, little cigars with tipping paper, and tubes will follow, and that will roll out until the end of April 2025.
Furthermore, the government has also introduced new health-related messages on tobacco packaging, which will be implemented through a “periodic rotation of message.”
“…This bold step will make health warning messages virtually unavoidable, and together with updated graphic images displayed on the package, will provide a real and startling reminder of the health consequences of smoking,” Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Carolyn Bennett said in a written statement.
“We will continue to do whatever it takes to help more people in Canada stop smoking and help young people to live healthy tobacco-free lives,” she added.
The Heart & Stroke foundation says 46,000 people die every year in Canada from tobacco use and half or more of all long-term regular smokers die prematurely as a result of tobacco use.
