Canada to put health warnings on individual cigarettes
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Canada to put health warnings on individual cigarettes
Video
- Canadian smokers will soon see warnings printed on individual cigarettes.
- Starting Aug. 1, Canada will become the first country to put warning labels on individual cigarettes.
- The warnings will include messages like ‘Cigarettes cause cancer’ and ‘Cigarettes cause impotence.’ It’s part of Canada’s national anti-tobacco strategy, but experts say warning labels alone won’t get people to butt out.
Transcript
- "As far as health warnings for smokers go, this one will be in your face, literally. It is a very positive announcement that Canada will be the first country in the world to have a warning directly on every cigarette.
- Health Canada's new tobacco labeling rules will force companies to add more warnings, telling users there's poison in every puff.
- Cigarettes cause cancer, impotence, leukemia, and harm children.
- The question is, will they work?
- "I think they should because it would stop everybody, probably even me."
- "Once you've seen the warning once, you've, you know, you see it again, it doesn't really have the same effect."
- While smoking rates in Canada have been declining, 12 percent still smoke. Cigarettes kill approximately 48,000 Canadians every year. The fact that there is a message warning on the product gets people to think about, "Really, should I be putting this into my mouth?" Researchers say warnings do push some people to quit and discourage younger users from starting. Studies have shown labels are effective in communicating the health risks of smoking.
- At the end of it all, the tobacco industry has the most intimate communication of all, directly to the brains of the people who smoke. That direct line of control is the highly addictive power of nicotine which keeps users coming back for more. They designed the cigarette to be really, really controllable through the puffing that people don't even know sometimes that they're doing this.
- This will create generational change, and those born after in their lifetime.
- There is no good reason to allow a product to be sold that kills half the people that use it.
- Can tobacco strategy aims to hit less than five percent tobacco you 2035.
- Experts say it'll take higher prices, lower nicotine levels, and better programs for smokers to reach that goal."
- Christine Burak CBC News Toronto.
Further Reading
"Starting Aug. 1, Canada will become the first country to put warning labels on individual cigarettes. The warnings will include messages like ‘Cigarettes cause cancer’ and ‘Cigarettes cause impotence.’ It’s part of Canada’s national anti-tobacco strategy, but experts say warning labels alone won’t get people to butt out."