2023-05-31 20:44:25
Canada will require health warnings to be printed directly on individual cigarettes and cigars – a “world premiere” in the fight once morest smoking, the government announced on Wednesday. Messages will be phased in from 1is August and will include phrases such as “Poison in every puff”, “Tobacco smoke harms children” et “Cigarettes cause cancer”.
48,000 Canadians continue to die each year from tobacco use, Mental Health and Addictions Minister Carolyn Bennett said in a statement, stressing that Canada is “the first country in the world” to implement such a measure. A similar bill had been debated in the British Parliament in 2022, without success.
“With this bold step, health warnings will be virtually unavoidable and will serve as a stark reminder of the health consequences of smoking, alongside updated images displayed on the packaging”said the minister.
Reduce the number of smokers to 5% of the population
To justify this measure, the Canadian government says it has found that some young people, particularly sensitive to the risk of tobacco addiction, start smoking following having received a single cigarette rather than a package with health warnings.
In 2000, Canada was the first country to order the affixing of graphic warnings on cigarette packages, including macabre representations of diseased hearts and lungs, in order to raise awareness of the health risks associated with smoking.
Since then, smoking has been on a downward trend and Ottawa aims to further reduce the number of smokers in the country to 5% of the population, or regarding 2 million people, by 2035, from regarding 13% Currently. According to government data, nearly half of the country’s healthcare costs are related to the use of psychoactive substances.
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