[Intl-tobacco] Canada: Smokers circumvent graphic health warnings (fwd)

[Robert Weissman]

Smokers circumvent graphic health warnings
Source: CBC News, Friday, 12/29/00

MONTREAL -

New packaging on cigarettes showing blackened lungs and rotting teeth has
sparked an Ottawa entrepreneur to come up with a new idea.

Tracy Fequet is selling cigarette package sleeves with nice pictures on them,
they sell in regular or king-size; and are easily slipped over the cigarette
package.

'I find it disgusting, it won't stop me from smoking' – Montreal smoker on new
graphic cigarette packaging

"We found it was kind of an insult to smokers," says Fequet about the new
pictures. "So, (we come up with) a package that was nice to look at."

New packaging by Health Canada is causing some smokers to buy more pleasant
pictures to mask the graphic photos.


 New cigarette packaging  "I find it disgusting, it won't stop me from
smoking," said one woman in Montreal as she bought her cigarettes.

Health Canada officials say the backlash is proof the new campaign is working,
showing that smokers are uncomfortable with the pictures.

Francois Damphouse of the Non-Smokers' Rights Association agrees, calling the
sleeves a "novelty" that will soon wear off.

Alternative packaging  "It's not going to make much of an impact," says
Damphouse.

"Earlier when we had warnings on the packages there were funny stickers you
could put on making fun of them and that didn't last."

The new packages have come out just as new statistics from the Lung Association
about smokers in Canada were released.

Topping the list of having the highest number of smokers is Nova Scotia at 30
per cent.

Coming in at numbers two and three are Newfoundland (29 per cent) and Quebec
(27 per cent).

British Columbia was lowest at 20 per cent.

Michel Godbout reports for CBC TV