CANADA TO BECOME WORLD’S FIRST COUNTRY TO PROPOSE HEALTH WARNINGS ON INDIVIDUAL CIGARETTES

(The Quiver): Canada is all set to become the world’s first country to put health warnings on individual cigarettes. The country had previously set an international trend after passing a mandate to include graphic photo warnings on tobacco products’ packaging two decades ago.”

We need to address the concern that these messages may have lost their novelty, and to an extent, we worry that they may have lost their impact as well,” said Canadian Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Carolyn Bennett.”

Adding health warnings on individual tobacco products will help ensure that these essential messages reach people, including the youth who often access cigarettes one at a time in social situations, sidestepping the information printed on a package.”

Planning to introduce the change during the second half of 2023, Bennett noted that the current proposal is: “Poison in every puff”.Welcoming the proposal, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada’s CEO Doug Roth told public broadcaster CBC that “Canada will now have the strongest health warning regime for cigarettes in the world.”

“These are deadly products, and these measures will help to further reduce their appeal to youth and non-smokers, as well as to support current smokers in their efforts to quit.”

According to Statistics Canada, over four million Canadians were daily or occasional smokers in 2020.