Canada is the first nation to use warnings on individual cigarettes in an effort to deter smoking.

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.

    • Erdosan@lemmy.mlEnglish
      91·
      11 months ago

      Yes that’s the point, if you get paint cancer first, you won’t ever get cancer from the sigarets themselves.

  • Hazdaz@lemmy.worldEnglish
    188·
    11 months ago

    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.

    • thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.worldEnglish
      71·
      11 months ago

      oof you need to keep more up to date on that kind of data, the trend has reversed in recent years with teenage and childhood vaping creating a new pathway to smoking.

      • LeylaLove@lemmy.fmhy.netEnglish
        3·
        11 months ago

        Smoking is still going down. The disposable vapes right now are so strong that they make cigarettes pointless. Can’t even feel a smoke after I’ve had one of those cheap 50mg vapes for a few days.

    • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
      2·
      11 months ago

      In marketing, this would be considered an awareness campaign. The problem is, that everyone knows.

      IMO, this is akin to Google advertising that their search engine exists, it’s pretty good, and you should try it. Alternatively, it would be apple informing people that they make electronics like computers and cellphones… (Not a specific one, just… In general). Or Nike running ads to say that they make shoes.

      Thanks, everyone knows that (household name) does (the thing it does), this is not helpful.

  • GreenCrush@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2719·
    11 months ago

    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@lemmy.worldEnglish
      21·
      11 months ago

      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.

      • SCB@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        11 months ago

        It does not cost the government a lot of money to abolish single-family zoning.

    • madcaesar@lemmy.worldEnglish
      174·
      11 months ago

      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.

    • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
      31·
      11 months ago

      Safety theatre. They just want to make sure beyond the shadow of a doubt, that you know that you’re doing the bad thing and you only have yourself to blame, regardless of any evidence that the public is well aware of the facts, and that the ones still smoking know this and either don’t care or simply cannot quit for whatever reason.

      Next up, we’re going to start tattooing “smoking kills” across the outside of everyone’s index finger at birth, so if they ever start smoking, the message is always visible as they puff on their cancer stick.

      We do all this to save the children, who, evidently, don’t give any shits.

  • solidsnake2085@lemmy.worldEnglish
    113·
    11 months ago

    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.

    • Polar@lemmy.caEnglish
      9·
      11 months ago

      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.

      • Zak@lemmy.worldEnglish
        32·
        11 months ago

        How many people don’t know smoking is harmful to their health at the time they start? I think that fact has pervaded the public consciousness, yet people still start smoking.

  • OminousHum@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6·
    11 months ago

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

  • Bookmeat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    93·
    11 months ago

    Can we just phase these shit-sticks out by raising the legal age by one year every year until forever? Who’s going to complain, the nonsmokers?

    • setVeryLoud(true);@lemmy.caEnglish
      121·
      11 months ago

      NZ already did this, existing smokers above age 16 or something are grandfathered in, and then each year the minimum age increases until no one can buy smokes.

      Tobacco is one of those products that causes a lot of harm to people and those around them for little benefit. Other drugs can either be enjoyed alone, or easily be consumed in a different form that doesn’t involve smoking and / or harming others.

    • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
      154·
      11 months ago

      How about we don’t criminalize a plant anymore and build a better world where no one feels like they need dangerous habits for a dopamine hit?

      Nah crazy talk. Banning plants works so well. No one uses cannabis or cocaine or opioids anymore.

      • asdfasdfasdf@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Then create a law where cigarette smoking in public is illegal and smoking means you opt out of health care the rest of your life, or else need to sign up for a “smokers plan” which has much higher costs to you. Also make sure you only sell your things to other smokers because of third hand smoke.

  • Tazmanian@lemmy.worldEnglish
    61·
    11 months ago

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

    • kool_newt@lemm.eeEnglish
      61·
      11 months ago

      To buy cigs, you are required to sign up for “Smoking Facts” text messages, that are triggered each time the pack is opened, and have to reply with “Yes, I want to die”.

  • Legendsofanus@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4·
    11 months 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.

    • Touching_Grass@lemmy.worldEnglish
      81·
      11 months ago

      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

      • Shard@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        11 months ago

        Education and awareness isn’t the only reason we see less smokers.

        Less harmful alternatives with the ability to allow users to taper off have now become common place.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldEnglish
      132·
      11 months ago

      Considering cannabis is legal in Canada, I think tobacco should be as well. Just don’t make plants illegal.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldEnglish
          71·
          11 months ago

          Yes. Along with all other drugs. Criminalizing drug use just fills prisons and does nothing about addiction or abuse.

        • LeylaLove@lemmy.fmhy.netEnglish
          41·
          11 months ago

          Yeah, that plant wasn’t even a crime until like 100 years ago. Our anti drug attitudes are fairly new, and banning the plants is just stupid. You know why fent and methadone exist? Because they’re synthetic opiates that can be made without poppies. America has been hit the hardest by the fent epidemic because we still have a ton of opiate addicts, but it’s impossible to find anything clean because it’s even more illegal.

          Every other nation is doing fine on fent compared to America. Find it funny that the nation that burnt thousands of other nation’s plants en mass is now getting dicked far harder because they burnt those plants and people just found worse sources. If poppies weren’t illegal, fent wouldn’t be what it is today.

          • Reddit_Is_Trash@reddthat.comEnglish
            1·
            11 months ago

            Agreed.

            Although there are a ton of people who abuse either sugar or cigarettes. Both of which have terrible long term effects on your body that we end up paying for through their hospital visits.

            There needs to be a solution where healthy people don’t have to pick up the slack of people who purposely ruin their bodies. Such as from smoking, eating a ton of sugar, etc.