TY - JOUR T1 - Worldwide news and comment JF - Tobacco Control JO - Tob Control SP - 495 LP - 497 DO - 10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2022-057547 VL - 31 IS - 4 AU - Karen Evans-Reeves AU - John Baker Y1 - 2022/07/01 UR - http://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/31/4/495.abstract N2 - All articles written by Karen Evans-Reeves and John Baker unless otherwise attributed. Ideas and items for News Analysis should be sent to k.a.evans-reeves@bath.ac.ukOn 7 February 2022, Canada implemented the final phase of its plain packaging regulations by requiring that all cigarettes be sold at retail in the “slide and shell” format, something that no other country has done. Through the Tobacco Products Regulations (Plain and Standardised Appearance ), the result is that the surface area for warnings on the package front and back increases substantially compared with flip top packages, even though the 75% warning minimum size has not changed.With the slide and shell package, the customer pushes up from the bottom an interior sliding compartment to open the package and remove cigarettes. While for flip top packages much of the warning at the top of the package is temporarily not seen when the package is opened, this is not the case for slide and shell.Package of 20 King size cigarettes in slide and shell format showing open package (left) and interior slide portion removed from package (right).Canada implemented most plain packaging requirements on 9 November 2019 at the manufacturer level and 7 February 2020 at the retail level. However, an additional 2 year transition period was given to implement the slide and shell format and to ban bevelled edges. The industry argued that it needed this extra time to change its machinery.Canada to date is the only country to require a health message inside packages, currently with eight rotated bilingual (English, French) messages that are cessation focused. Previously the message would be on an insert for flip top packages and on the slide for slide and shell packages. Now with only slide and shell packages, the interior message will appear on the slide for all packagesand … ER -