[Intl-tobacco] Canada: Big, shocking images eyed for cigarette packages (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Big, shocking images eyed for cigarette packages
Graphic designs to discourage young smokers
by Tim Harper / Toronto Star  Ottawa Bureau=20
Source: Toronto Star, Thursday, 1/13/00

OTTAWA - Health Minister Allan Rock is set to up the ante on tobacco
control by unveiling a range of cigarette package designs, which could
include images of a cancerous mouth, a dead lung or a fragment of the
human brain.

 Another new, bold message under consideration features a smiling,
attractive girl holding a cigarette, under the heading ``Children See,
Children Do.''

 A warning to pregnant women depicts an empty crib while others show
pictures of dead infants, including one linking smoking with Sudden Infant
Death Syndrome (SIDS).

 They were among 13 designs tested during 13 focus group sessions
conducted in Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa. The results were released by
Health Canada yesterday.

 If Rock proceeds with the images, Canada may have the largest, most
graphic health warnings on cigarette packages in the world.

 The images are expected to take up 60 per cent of the packaging, about
double the size of current anti-smoking warnings.

A source close to Rock confirmed yesterday the minister would move soon on
the ``size and content'' of warnings on cigarette packages.

 Rock is expected to unveil the new regulations next week, most likely on
the national anti-smoking day dubbed ``Weedless Wednesday.''

 An anti-smoking advocate said she is pleased with Rock's response to the
health community's call for shocking, graphic images that could jolt
adolescents who are just taking up smoking.

 ``We have recommended that they move to the photos and we're expecting to
be pleased,'' said Cynthia Callard of Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada.

 The revised images could be included in so-called slides of the package,
the portion that smokers flip up when they reach for a cigarette. It is
often blank, or, in the case of the popular Player's brand, it provides a
calendar.

 Marie-Jose=E9 Lapointe of the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers Council, the
organization that acts for the country's three big cigarette makers, said
Rock could face difficulties on two fronts.

 She said the technology might not be available to print such images.

 She also repeated an earlier warning that the tobacco companies could
challenge in court any move to use up to 60 per cent of the package
because it infringes on the companies' trademarks.

 ``We don't think legislation should be made based on focus groups,'' she
said.

 Young smokers told Environics Research, which did the study in late May
and early June, that they were most affected by the images of mouth
cancer, the diseased lung, the young child holding the cigarette, the
brain fragment accompanied by a warning about strokes and a dead baby to
illustrate the link to SIDS.

 But the response wasn't universal.

 Some young smokers told researchers they didn't believe smoking could
cause mouth cancer. They also laughed off another image, under the heading
``Kiss Me,'' of a woman kissing an ash tray.

 The image was chosen to illustrate that smoking diminishes sex appeal.

 ``Clear visuals,'' Environics says, ``where the picture actually does say
a thousand words, will have greatest across-the-board impact on the
smoking population.''

 It supports Health Canada's view that black-and-white text messages may
no longer have the impact they had when they were introduced in 1994.

 Meanwhile yesterday, Manitoba doctors called for smoking bans in bars and
restaurants, citing efforts in British Columbia to protect workers from
second-hand smoke.

 The Manitoba Medical Association is urging the Winnipeg city council to
pass a bylaw that would ban of smoking in public places.

 They say a survey of more than 900 Manitobans last month showed that
about 70 per cent supported a total ban on smoking in restaurants.

 In B.C., the Workers Compensation Board is forcing smokers to butt out in
bars and restaurants, saying employees deserve the right to work in a
smoke-free environment.