Canada Will Be The First Country To Have A Warning Label On Every Cigarette

Canada is going to become the first country in the world to require a printed warning on every cigarette due to concerns that pictorial warnings on tobacco packets are losing their effectiveness.The decision comes two decades following the country set the standard for graphic picture warnings on tobacco product packaging.

Carolyn Bennett, the minister of mental health and addictions said that they need to confront the fear that these messages have lost their freshness, and to some extent, they were concerned that they've lost their impact as well. Notably health warnings on individual tobacco products will assist ensure that these important messages reach people, including youngsters, who frequently access cigarettes one at a time in social contexts, avoiding the information printed on the package.

On Saturday, a public consultation process for the planned reform was set to begin, with the government hoping to have the changes in place by the second half of 2023. 'Poison with every puff,' claimed the minister of mental health and addictions, while the specific messaging could alter.

Bennett also discussed additional cigarette packaging warnings, such as a long list of health risks associated with smoking, such as stomach cancer, colorectal cancer, diabetes, and peripheral vascular disease. Photo warnings were first established in Canada two decades ago, but the graphics haven't been changed in that time.

Meanwhile, Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society, expressed his optimism that the cigarette warnings would become widely accepted around the world, noting that no other country had enacted similar rules.