New regulations come into effect Tuesday in Canada requiring companies to label individual cigarettes with a health warning – a move the government describes as a global first.
The labels feature statements such as: “Cigarettes damage your organs,” “Poison in every puff,” and “Cigarettes cause leukemia.” Canada can claim many global anti-smoking firsts: The first to ban smoking on domestic and international flights ; the first host of a smoke-free Olympics ; the first photo or graphic health warnings on packages , and the first province/state in the world to ban smoking on patios , the first country to ban flavoured cigarettes and cigarillos .Ban on advertising One of the earliest moves to curb smoking, a House committee in 1969 recommended a ban on tobacco advertising.
Photo warnings on tobacco packages With the Federal Tobacco Products Information Regulations, Canada became the first country in the world to require graphic pictures warning about the negative health effects of tobacco directly on the package. The rules, which came into effect in 2001, required graphics to cover 50 per cent of the package, front and back.
Additional regulations increasing the size of the warnings to 75 per cent of packages came into effect in 2012. That same year, Canada was ranked fourth of 198 countries for its cigarette warning labels. Australia, which by then already had in place plain-packaging rules for tobacco products, was judged to be the strictest in the world. In 2020, plain-packaging rules – which research shows have helped reduce smoking rates – came into effect in Canada.