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submitted 2 years ago by soyagi@yiffit.net to c/world@lemmy.world

Canada will be the first nation to start printing warnings directly onto individual cigarettes in a bid to deter young people from starting smoking and encourage others to quit.

The warnings, which will be in English and French, will include phrases like "Cigarettes cause cancer" and "Poison in every puff".

The new regulations go into effect on Tuesday.

Starting next year, Canadians will begin to see the new warning labels.

By July 2024 manufacturers will have to ensure the warnings are on all king-size cigarettes sold, and by April 2025 all regular-size cigarettes and little cigars with tipping paper and tubes must include the warnings.

The phrases will appear by the filter, including warnings about harming children, damaging organs and causing impotence and leukaemia.

In May, Health Canada said the new regulations "will make it virtually impossible to avoid health warnings" on tobacco products.

A second set of six phrases is expected to be printed on cigarettes in 2026.

The move is part of Canada's effort to reduce tobacco use to less than 5% by 2035 and follows a 75-day public consultation period that was launched last year.

Canada has required the printing of warning labels on cigarette packages since 1989 and in 2000 the country adopted pictorial warning requirements for tobacco product packages.

Health Canada said it plans to expand on warnings by printing additional warning labels inside the packages themselves, and introducing a new external warning messages.

Dr Robert Schwartz, of the University of Toronto, told BBC News it was good news that Canada was "moving forward with this innovation".

"Health warnings on individual cigarettes will likely push some people who smoke to make a quit attempt and may prevent some young people from starting to smoke," he said.

He also pointed to New Zealand, which has introduced very low nicotine cigarettes, as a leader in limiting the use of tobacco.

Mr Schwartz added: "These are the kinds of measures needed if we are serious about decreasing tobacco use."

Tobacco use continues to kill 48,000 Canadians each year.

"Tobacco use continues to be one of Canada's most significant public health problems, and is the country's leading preventable cause of disease and premature death in Canada," Public Services Minister Jean-Yves Duclos has previously said.

The Canadian Cancer Society, Canada's Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Canadian Lung Association have all praised the warning labels, saying they hope the measures will deter people, especially young people, from taking up smoking in the first place.

Cigarette smoking is widely regarded as a risk factor for lung cancer, heart disease and stroke.

In Canada, the rate of smokers aged 15 years or older is around 10%, according to a national 2021 Tobacco and Nicotine survey but electronic cigarette use has been on the rise.

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[-] Ertebolle@kbin.social 65 points 2 years ago

Is this really necessary? Aren't most smokers, y'know, aware of the dangers of smoking by now? At some point I wonder if the warnings will get annoying enough that people will start to actively defy them out of spite instead of just passively ignoring them.

[-] Neato@kbin.social 44 points 2 years ago

“Health warnings on individual cigarettes will likely push some people who smoke to make a quit attempt and may prevent some young people from starting to smoke,” he said.

The constant barrage of negativity and warnings may help keep kids from picking it up.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 27 points 2 years ago

Kids aren’t picking it up though. They’re going to vapes. Which are probably just as bad.

[-] Alto@kbin.social 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

As I understand it, vapes are in theory not as bad, however the significant increase nicotine consumption far offsets any of that.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 22 points 2 years ago

Kind of depends on the vape, the chemicals in the cartridges and how hot they get.

Generally speaking though, inhaling chemical aerosols into your lungs is bad. Most of the “it’s better” research is brought to you by the vaping industry itself . “No, no, it’s totally harmless. Honest!”

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[-] Belgdore@lemm.ee 9 points 2 years ago

The lack of any real controls on what goes into vape fluid is a concern. Also, breathing glycol into your lungs can’t be great for them. Studies seem to vary on that, but breathing anything but air isn’t good, just like drinking anything but water isn’t great (I’m big hypocrite on that one though) On the whole probably still not as bad as cigarettes.

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[-] Taleya@aussie.zone 16 points 2 years ago

They have ONE idea to stop people smoking and by god they're gonna use it

[-] doppelgangmember@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago

Lots of smokers ive known usually wear the dangers as a badge of pride in their knowing

[-] can@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 years ago

Most smokers are not thrilled about being alive in the first place.

Or is that just me?

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[-] Not_Reddit@lemmy.world 44 points 2 years ago

Could someone smart enlighten me on why cigarettes continue to be allowed to be sold if we know that it causes cancer and costs the healthcare system millions (billions?) each year? I know we can't suddenly stop production overnight but can't they gradually putting a stricter ban on it until it's almost impossible to get? Is it smokers being too addicted? Is it tobacco lobby being too strong?

[-] tunahanyilmaz@lemmy.world 76 points 2 years ago

Because people will still smoke even if you ban cigarettes. Legalizing cigarettes actually provides a way for governments to regulate production and enforce safety standards, while getting a cut of the profits by sales tax.

[-] danieljoeblack@kbin.social 32 points 2 years ago

Exactly, if you made them illegal you would open up a huge black market while making the products likely more dangerous. This would put further strain on our healthcare system, while decrease funding as the government would no longer be getting taxes on the sale of cigarettes.

[-] tdawg@lemmy.world 44 points 2 years ago
[-] beigegull@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

The lessons of the 20th century have mostly been forgotten. Re-learning them is going to be very expensive - not just in money, but in lives.

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[-] Achaeminus@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago

Optionally we can do (worldwide) what Australia does: an additional 65% tax.

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[-] OminousHum@lemmy.world 41 points 2 years ago

I bet it would be a lot more effective if they just printed a penis down the length of every cigarette.

[-] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 10 points 2 years ago

Wouldn't it make smoking more cool?

[-] solidsnake2085@lemmy.world 40 points 2 years ago

My friend from Canada comes to visit and is a smoker. She brings packs with her and the entire pack is covered in warnings and pictures. I asked her if it bothers her and and she said, "I don't even notice them anymore." I highly doubt putting a warning on each cigarette is going to do anything.

[-] Polar@lemmy.ca 18 points 2 years ago

People who have lung cancer continue to smoke in the hospital. Alcoholics continue to drink, even after massive accidents.

People addicted to things don't care.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

It's not that they don't care, it's that they can't stop.

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[-] Twisting0347@lemmy.world 32 points 2 years ago

"Poison in every Puff"

Don't threaten me with a good time!

Joking aside, I'm fairly ambivalent about this as a smoker. I hope it helps people avoid smoking but not sure how effective these warnings are.

[-] janus2@lemmy.sdf.org 33 points 2 years ago

Former smoker. The specific medical warnings are good imo. "Poison in every puff" is a little too goofy and my inner teenager reaction is just "hell yeah" hahaha. Which is funny, but also counterproductive.

[-] Spendrill@lemm.ee 14 points 2 years ago

Long time ago my brand was Death cigarettes. The pack had a skull on it and a portion of the price of packet went to cancer research. I knew that smoking was bad idea but it was an excellent drug delivery system.

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

Though if it just means it costs the cigarette companies a bit more to produce each cigarette and makes it harder for them to divert inventory for one market to another if their predictions turn out not so good, that's still a win.

Though, now I'm suddenly wondering why cigarette company profits aren't taxed at like 90%.

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[-] ShakeThatYam@lemmy.world 20 points 2 years ago

I quit smoking almost a decade ago. But I feel like if I was still smoking this would only make me want to smoke more. Watching the warnings slowly burn away would be relaxing.

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[-] GreenCrush@lemmy.world 27 points 2 years ago

This is stupid. Every one knows that cigarettes are bad for you. Maybe fix the housing market, and opiate crisis before going after something like smoking, which plenty of productive people do.

[-] Mamertine@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago

There is no cost to the government to mandate that cigarettes have this printed on each one.

Fixing other things will cost the government a lot of money.

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[-] madcaesar@lemmy.world 17 points 2 years ago

Smoking costs all of us shit loads of money every year. I know it feels easy to shit on this initiative, but whatever, smoking needs to be eradicated.

Until people are willing to write waivers that they will fully pay their personal healthcare costs we have to keep disincentivising smoking.

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[-] kokesh@lemmy.world 24 points 2 years ago
[-] Erdosan@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 years ago

Yes that's the point, if you get paint cancer first, you won't ever get cancer from the sigarets themselves.

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[-] jacktherippah@lemmy.world 21 points 2 years ago

If they ignored the warning on the pack, they're gonna ignore these too.

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[-] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 19 points 2 years ago

If the ink causes cancer...

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[-] robocall@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Let's add a warning label to every bottle of alcohol /s

[-] strawberrysocial@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

They are actually considering adding warning labels to booze in Canada like they have on cigarette packages. I'm unsure if they'll go full gory photos of damaged organs and dying people but they are thinking of putting a label of some sort on it.

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[-] Tazmanian@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago

I think the next step should be that, while you're smoking the smoke writes "Smoking Cause Cancer" in Morse code.

[-] TIEPilot@lemmy.world 11 points 2 years ago

This is so stupid, they know they are bad for them and they keep puffing away. So why waste the resources?

Reminds me of Bill Burr's take on DV

https://youtu.be/zM38aK5Uhs4?t=101

[-] tempest@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 years ago

What resources? The cost to print those messages is so small and shouldered by the manufacturer. The government doesn't care it's going to cost another half cent per cigarette wrapper and the majority of legally purchased cigarette cost is tax at this point.

I more curious if they will have to be printed on the big bags of smokes people get from the resi.

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[-] p1mrx@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

SMOKING WORDS CAUSES CANCER

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[-] Legendsofanus@lemmy.world 9 points 2 years ago

What about e-cigs and vape? They're the new hip and most young people are catering to that now some even rationalizing that they do it because it doesn't have nicotine and is therefore not dangerous.

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this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
551 points (100.0% liked)

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