In efforts to deter young people from smoking, and to encourage others to give up, from next year, Canada will become the first country to start printing warnings directly on to individual cigarettes – in French and English – with phrases like “Cigarettes cause cancer” and “Poison in every puff”.
By July 2024, manufacturers will have to ensure the warnings are on every single cigarette sold, and by April 2025, all regular-size cigarettes and little cigars with tipping paper and tubes must include the warnings.
The phrases will also include warnings about harming children, damaging organs and causing impotence and leukaemia, reports BBC News.
A second set of six phrases is expected to be printed on cigarettes in 2026.
Canada has required the printing of warning labels on cigarette packages since 1989 and in 2000, adopted pictorial warning requirements for tobacco product packages.
Tobacco kills some 48 000 Canadians each year. The country’s rate of smokers aged 15 and older is around 10%, according to a national 2021 Tobacco and Nicotine survey, but electronic cigarette use has been on the rise.
BBC News article – Canada launches warning labels on each cigarette (Open access)
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