this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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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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[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 1 year ago (24 children)

“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.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

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

[–] doppelgangmember 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

Or is that just me?

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[–] Not_Reddit 41 points 1 year ago (5 children)

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 76 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year 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 45 points 1 year ago (3 children)
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[–] Achaeminus 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

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[–] OminousHum 40 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Wouldn't it make smoking more cool?

[–] solidsnake2085 37 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Twisting0347 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

"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.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year 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 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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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[–] Hazdaz 25 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Completely and utterly pointless.

This will not change anything. It won't convince any more people to quit.

Smoking trends have been on the correct trajectory for decades now. I recall seeing a scientific study on Reddit a few years ago that stated in cases like this where people are faced with overwhelming evidence contrary to their current opinions or lifestyles, people tended to double and triple-down on their opinions and habits. The more push there was, the bigger the blow-back. People are stubborn even when it comes to their health.

I have little doubt that the smoking trend will continue to drop, but wasting ever more resources with gimmicks like this might actually slow that downward trend some. Smokers know cigarettes are dangerous and cause cancer. Everyone does. It is beyond common knowledge at this point. Just let it all play out.

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[–] kokesh 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year 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 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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

[–] Touching_Grass 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Maybe "they" will. Worked on me though. Took sometime but after years of the warnings it finally sunk into me how dumb smoking was and I quit. Some people are not reachable but the anti smoking campaign is working because we've seen huge reduction in smokers since its started

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[–] postmateDumbass 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

If the ink causes cancer...

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[–] robocall 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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

[–] strawberrysocial 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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

[–] Legendsofanus 8 points 1 year 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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

"Never knows best".

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Denis Leary: It doesn't matter how big the warnings on the cigarettes are; you could have a black pack, with a skull and crossbones on the front, called TUMORS, and smokers would be around the block going, "I can't wait to get my hands on these f***ing things! I bet ya get a tumor as soon as you light up!"

Funny enough tale is he actually quit a while ago, but there are a handful of folks that legitimatly don't give a damn how may warnings of what type you put on there. It seems a lot more practical to just continue to raise the tax on them to fund the health system detriments they pose.

[–] p1mrx 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

SMOKING WORDS CAUSES CANCER

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[–] GreenCrush 8 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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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