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CANADA: consultation launched for warnings directly on cigarettes
All articles written by Marita Hefler unless otherwise attributed. Ideas and items for News Analysis should be sent to: marita.hefler@menzies.edu.au
On 26 October 2018, the Canadian Department of Health launched a public consultation to require health warnings directly on cigarettes as part of a broader consultation on the next round of package health warnings. The consultation period ends on 4 January 2019.
In response to the consultation document, health organisation comments to the media noted that the measure is supported by research and by international guidelines under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) (article 11), and highlighted a number of benefits of requiring warnings on cigarettes. These included reaching every smoker every day with every cigarette at no cost to government, denormalising cigarettes and making them less attractive and generating discussion. It would provide highly cost-effective messaging on the 27 billion cigarettes sold each year in Canada, providing exposure to messages 7300 times per year for a smoker of a package of 20 cigarettes per day, and prompt smokers to think more when the cigarette must be placed in their mouth each time, including when smokers take outside smoking breaks (when they may only take a single stick rather than a package with warning labels). Importantly, it would also provide direct messaging for youth who experiment by ‘borrowing’ cigarettes from friends.
Further, warnings on cigarettes would help combat contraband by indicating cigarettes intended for the legitimate Canadian market and by providing authorities with a further tool for seizing illegal product. In addition, customs authorities at the border would have a new mechanism to seize unmarked cigarette paper raw materials intended for unlicensed factories that illegally manufacture cigarettes.
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