Canada, a country that pioneered anti-smoking messages on packs, will now be the first in the world to require manufacturers to print warnings directly on individual cigarettes, federal health officials said.
Starting next year, cigarettes sold in Canada will have one of six messages in English and French.
Cigarettes will be imprinted with legends such as “Tobacco Harms Children” or “Poison in Every Puff.”
Health Canada announced the regulation Wednesday for World No Tobacco Day.
“This bold step will make health warning messages virtually inevitable,” Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett said, according to The Washington Post.
With updated graphic images on cigarette packs, the labels “will provide a real and striking reminder of the health consequences of smoking.”
The Canadian government will require labels on cigarettes by April 30, 2024, on king sizes, and on all regular and other cigarettes by January 21, 2025.
It should be noted that more than 48,000 people in Canada die as a result of tobacco use each year, according to Health Canada.
In sum, that’s more than those who die as a result of alcohol, opioids, suicide, murder and traffic accidents combined.
Smoking costs the economy $16.2 billion in a year, the Ottawa-based think tank Conference Board of Canada reported in 2017.
Additionally, Canada has a history of aggressive labeling against the harms of tobacco. In 2001, it was the first to require manufacturers to print graphic images of the physical damage caused by smoking on the outside of cigarette packs.
The US Food and Drug Administration, by contrast, did not require pictorial warnings until 2020. The requirement has since been blocked by a federal judge.
Health Canada estimates that 13 percent of the population smokes tobacco, up from 22.5% in 2001. The ministry aims to reduce use to less than 5 percent by 2035.
Keep reading:
Tips to overcome addiction to electronic cigarettes
Man Severely Burned After Vaporizer Explodes in Pocket
Discarded cigarette leads to conviction of man for strangling teenager in 1991