Cigarette warnings to be printed on individual smokes in Canada

Canada’s requirement for warnings to be printed directly on every individual cigarette is officially taking effect.

The federal government says tobacco companies have until Tuesday, April 30, to ensure King Size cigarettes depict these new warnings. Retailers will have three additional months to make sure the warnings are there, by July 31.

Canadians may not start seeing warnings on regular size cigarettes — which are 70 to 73 millimetres in length — until 2025. Implementation for tobacco companies this size of cigarette is slated for Jan. 31 of that year, while retailers will have until April 30, 2025, to comply.

According to the Canadian Cancer Society, King Size cigarettes are the most common size cigarettes sold. They are also the standard international size. It notes that 69 per cent of the Canadian cigarette market was comprised of King Size smokes in 2021.

There are six warnings in both official languages. They include:

Poison in every puff
Cigarettes damage your organs
Cigarettes cause cancer
Tobacco smoke harms children
Cigarettes cause impotence
Cigarettes cause leukemia

In addition to the written warnings, a new round of 14 pictures with warnings started rolling out in stores earlier this month. Cigarette manufacturers were given a deadline of Jan. 31, 2024, to bring in these new photo warnings.

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The new requirements were announced last year. Canada is the first country to do this in a bid to sway children away from picking up the habit.

Labelling the tipping paper of individual cigarettes, little cigars, tubes, and other tobacco products will make it virtually impossible to avoid health warnings altogether, Health Canada said in a release in May 2023.

The move builds on Canada’s mandate to include graphic photo warnings on tobacco products’ packaging — a groundbreaking policy that started an international trend when it was introduced two decades ago.

Canada has required photo warnings since the turn of the millennium, but the images haven’t been updated in a decade.

“A health warning directly on every individual cigarette is novel, unprecedented, and simply cannot be ignored,” said Canadian Cancer Society Senior Policy Analyst Rob Cunningham.

“These new health warnings will be there with every cigarette and every puff, and during every smoke break. The warnings will reach youth who experiment by borrowing cigarettes from a friend. The warnings will reduce smoking and the appeal of cigarettes, and thus prevent cancer and other diseases.”

The society says tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease and death in this country, with 46,000 Canadians killed each year.

-With files from John Marchesan