[Intl-tobacco] Canada: Graphic tobacco packs to hit stores (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Graphic tobacco packs to hit stores
Warnings like this will cover half of display surface
by Tim Harper
Source: Toronto Star, Tuesday, 12/19/00

OTTAWA - Graphic new anti-smoking messages - including a drooping
cigarette to illustrate potential impotency - should be on cigarette
packages in Ontario corner stores by Christmas.

 The new packages have already begun showing up on store shelves in
Atlantic Canada and Quebec and the deadline for all packages to be printed
with the warnings is Saturday.

 Norm Brown, director of regulations and compliance at Health Canada's
tobacco bureau, said there have been no signs from the tobacco industry
that there will be a problem in the printing process.

 Last spring, however, the tobacco industry was telling a parliamentary
committee it would be impossible to produce the colour photos and images
required by Health Canada.

 Cynthia Callard of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada said she was
impressed at the quality of the reproduction on the packages which have
begun appearing on Quebec store shelves.

 ``It was a joyous moment when we saw the first one,'' she said.

 The tobacco industry is challenging the packaging law in court, but it
lost a bid for an injunction to halt the printing.

 A challenge to Ottawa's existing anti-tobacco legislation could be heard
in the spring.

 A spokesperson for the Canadian Tobacco Manufacturers Council said the
industry is complying, even though some companies will have to modify
their trademarks.

 The spokesperson said the industry would spend $30 million complying with
the Health Canada directives, but couldn't say whether that cost would be
passed on to smokers.

 The messages cover 50 per cent of the display surface and manufacturers
must provide information on how to quit smoking on the inside flap of the
package.

 Manufacturers must also list more detailed information on the toxic
ingredients in their product.

 Health Minister Allan Rock claims the labelling and reporting
requirements are the toughest in the world.

 There are 16 new messages featuring such images as a diseased brain to
illustrate cigarettes causing strokes, cancerous tumours on lungs and an
image of a newborn beside the message ``Tobacco Smoke Hurts Babies.''

 Another package warns that cigarettes are highly addictive and shows a
woman smoking from a tube in her neck and another shows a cancerous mouth.

 Yet another warns that ``cigarettes can cause a slow and painful death''
and includes statistics on tobacco-related deaths in Canada.

 The package that will inevitably receive the most attention is the
drooping cigarette which illustrates how nicotine can prevent men from
attaining an erection.

 ``Cigarettes may cause sexual impotence due to decreased blood flow to
the penis,'' the message reads.

 ``This can prevent you from having an erection.''

 Health Canada has posted its scientific rationale for each claim at
http://www.infotobacco.com.

 Brown said the 16 messages are expected to receive equal distribution
with no warning being emphasized over another.