Canada Shelves Anti-Tobacco Campaign, Health Advocates Blame Big Tobacco

The Canadian health ministry has suspended a plan to upgrade graphic health warnings on cigarette packages and health advocates blame the tobacco industry, Reuters reported Sept. 28.

Canadian cigarettes already carry warning labels that take up half the surface area of the package, and regulations prohibit retail outlets from displaying the cigarettes they sell. Health advocates argue that the warning labels need to be updated and bigger in size to renew their impact.

[View the images: Canadian cigarette warning labels on the CDC website, 2007]

The Canadian health ministry spent six years finalizing the details of the new labels but placed the campaign on hold in September. “Health Canada continues to examine the renewal of health warning messages on tobacco packaging but is not ready to move forward at this time,” a spokeswoman said. In her statement, she referred to legal measures to limit the distribution of contraband tobacco. 

According to Eric Gagnon, a spokesman for Imperial Tobacco, contraband tobacco costs the industry at least $875 million annually, and costs the government lost tax revenue.

“The biggest tobacco problem in Canada today is contraband. So increasing a health warning on a product that already has a 50 percent health warning — and is also hidden from public view — is not a public health initiative,” Gagnon said.

Ujjal Dosanjh, a legislator who was the federal health minister when work began on the new warning label campaign, blamed the policy shift on the influence of the tobacco industry. “This government is listening to the business lobby, the tobacco lobby,” he said. He added that the government could tackle contraband tobacco as well as moving forward with the new warning labels.