ENEWS:CANADA:New labels pack a punch() (fwd)

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

New labels pack a punch
Feds unveil in-your-face cigarette boxes

by ANNE DAWSON, Parliamentary Bureau Ottawa Sun (1603) CANADA;  Date:
Tuesday, 1/19/99 ----------------------<14214>----------------------   NEW
anti-smoking labels would cover 60% of cigarette packages under proposals
introduced by Health Minister Allan Rock yesterday. 

Rock also announced plans to crack down on cigarette sales displays, which
are often geared to kids in corner stores, and step up reporting
requirements of toxic ingredients for tobacco companies. 

"These proposals will make Canada a world leader in the regulation of
tobacco labeling," Rock told a receptive audience of health groups
yesterday. 

A list of new messages outlined in the government proposals did not
include warnings about smoking causing male impotence as earlier reported. 

But Denis Choniere, co-ordinator of the Health Department office of
tobacco control, said the department is interested in using the impotence
message if it can be shown to be effective. 

The government of Thailand has already moved to require impotency warnings
on cigarette packages and many researchers believe such messages could be
effective for youth. 

"Some of the messages that have an immediate impact for kids, such as bad
breath, such as impotence for younger men, may have, for a segment of
smokers, an impact which is greater than lung cancer, which is perceived
to be decades down the road," said Rob Cunningham of the Canadian Cancer
Society. 

"Those are the type of messages we want to see and we expect to see when
the day is done." 

Rock said possible new hard hitting messages could include: "Smoking can
cause a slow and painful death" and "Smoking is a weakness, not a
strength." 

A more obscure warning, used as a backdrop for Rock's announcement at the
kick off of National Non-Smoking Week yesterday, said "Nitrosamines cause
cancer." But little explanation was given on the label. 

Current warning labels on cigarettes take up only 25% of the package. 

While Rock insists labels are the most effective way to curb the smoking
ways of 7 million Canadians, tobacco company representatives scoffed at
the scheme saying they have no effect at all. 

"All we know from behaviour by the Canadian market over a four-year-plus
period is that those very large warning messages have not worked," said
Rob Parker, president of the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers' Association. 

"I don't believe there's one chance in a thousand (a new larger label)
will change the smoking rate in Canada. As of 1997, smoking has remained
essentially unchanged since 1986." 

He said tobacco firms will consider a court challenge to the proposed new
label size saying it may not be legal for the government to keep this much
of their package. 

"There is a question of confiscation of trademark involved in the size of
the warning label being proposed," he said. 

Also under the new regulations, statements listing the toxic ingredients
in cigarette smoke will be printed prominently on the front of every
cigarette package. 

Parker said that requirement will be impossible to meet because there are
no standardized tests for many components in tobacco smoke. 

The new regulations, to take effect by the end of the year, will also
govern in-store display and advertising of tobacco products. 

The industry currently pays about $60 million a year to retailers to
ensure that tobacco products are displayed in an eye-catching way. 

"We want to come to grips with the fact that retail sales outlets are used
by the tobacco industry to advertise these products and that children are
directly and continuously exposed to those advertisements," Rock said.