Resources Library – Hot Topic – Plain Packaging
Hot Topic – Plain Packaging
Health Canada’s new regulations on plain packaging have taken effect on November 9, 2019. Retailers have a 90-day window to off-load their remaining inventory.
All packaging must now feature the same brown base colour, basic grey text and minimalist layout under the new requirements. The measures also standardize the size and appearance of cigarettes, cigars and other products inside the packages.
The decision to adopt plain packaging for tobacco products was first announced by Health Canada on May 1st, 2019. These packages and products are powerful promotional vehicles. Reducing the appeal of tobacco products is an important step toward protecting Canadians, particularly youth, from inducements to using tobacco products and from the consequent dependence on them.
Links to official information on legislation in Canada regarding plain and standardized packaging:
- Bill S-5: An Act to amend the Tobacco Act and the Non-smokers’ Health Act and to make consequential amendments to other Acts
- Health Canada Backgrounder on Plain and Standardized Packaging
- Canada now has the best tobacco plain packaging regulations in the world – Canadian Cancer Society (News Release – May 2019)
In the news:
Resources on Plain Packaging
‘Poison in every puff’: Individual cigarettes sold in Canada are now labelled with health warnings in a world first
Shoppers are already noticing some cigarettes individually labelled with health warnings in stores — and pretty soon, it will be the standard.
The Canadian regulation, the first of its kind in the world, will require all cigarette manufacturers to label individual smokes with written, bilingual warnings. The deadline for king-size cigarettes, the most common size sold in Canada, is Tuesday.
“It’s a health measure that is innovative, that reaches the entire smoking population,” Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society, told the Star.
“It costs nothing, and it is going to reduce smoking and cancer — so it’s a winner,” he continued. “It’s simply a warning that cannot be ignored … For someone (on) a smoke break, that warning is going to be there for the entire five minutes.”
For now, packs will contain the following six bilingual warnings: “Poison in every puff,” “Cigarettes damage your organs,” “Cigarettes cause cancer,” “Tobacco smoke harms children,” “Cigarettes cause impotence” and “Cigarettes cause leukemia.”
These will be rotated for another set of six warnings every two years, according to Health Canada, keeping the messages “impactful, noticeable and memorable.” They will be displayed “directly on individual cigarettes, little cigars that have tipping paper and tubes.”
Individually labelled smokes are already appearing in stores as cigarette companies and manufacturers make the transition, Cunningham explained.
5 Minute Guide – Plain Packaging Around the World – Propel Centre for Population Health Impact
Infographic presented by the Propel Centre for Population Health Impact.
Canada to become first country in the world to require health warnings on individual cigarettes
News release
May 31, 2023 | Ottawa, ON | Health Canada
Today, on World No Tobacco Day, the Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister for Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, announced that Canada will soon require that health warnings be printed directly on individual cigarettes ─ becoming the first country in the world to take this approach.
The new Tobacco Products Appearance, Packaging and Labelling Regulations will be part of the Government of Canada’s continued efforts to help adults who smoke to quit, to protect youth and non-tobacco users from nicotine addiction, and to further reduce the appeal of tobacco. Labelling the tipping paper of individual cigarettes, little cigars, tubes, and other tobacco products will make it virtually impossible to avoid health warnings altogether. In addition, the regulations will support Canada’s Tobacco Strategy and its target of reaching less than 5% tobacco use by 2035.
These regulations will come into force on August 1, 2023, and will be implemented through a phased approach that will see most measures on the Canadian market within the year. Retailers will carry tobacco product packages that feature the new health-related messages by the end of April 2024. King size cigarettes will be the first to feature the individual health warnings and will be sold by retailers in Canada by the end of July 2024, followed by regular size cigarettes and little cigars with tipping paper, and tubes, by the end of April 2025.
Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) results for 2020 just released GalleryCanadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) results for 2020 just released
Hot Topic - Plain Packaging - Resources on Plain and Standardized Packaging, News, Quit - Adults - Learning Resources for Health Professionals - NB, Quit - Adults - Resources for Individuals - Canada and International, Reports and Statistics
Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) results for 2020 just released
Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) results for 2020 were just released.
There was a decrease in current smoking from 14.8% in 2019 to 12.9% in 2020, while daily smoking decreased from 10.0% in 2019 to 9.1% in 2020. These are the lowest smoking prevalence rates ever recorded by CCHS.
Current smoking in 2020 was 15.8% among males and 10.1% among females.
Daily smoking in 2020 was 10.9% among males and 7.3% among females.
Here are trends in current and daily smoking from CCHS Canada-wide:
Current Daily
26% 2001 21.5%
23% 2003 18%
22% 2005 17%
22% 2007 17%
21% 2008 17%
20% 2009 16%
21% 2010 16%
20% 2011 15%
20% 2012 15.5%
19% 2013 14%
18% 2014 13.5%
18% 2015 13%
17% 2016 12%
16% 2017 12%
15.8% 2018 10.9%
14.8% 2019 10.0%
12.9% 2020 9.1%
Plain packaging, an important measure, was implemented at the retail level on Feb. 7, 2020.
The most important reason for the decline in smoking prevalence in recent years has been substantially higher prices, through tobacco tax increases and very large manufacturer price increases. Manufacturers themselves have increased their net-of-tax prices on average by $20.20 per carton of 200 cigarettes over the seven year period 2014-2020 inclusive. And during this seven year period there have been federal tobacco tax increases totalling $7.76 per carton, and provincial tobacco tax increases totalling $4.00 in Quebec, $14.40 in BC, $12.25 in Ontario, $13.04 in New Brunswick, $15.00 in Alberta, as well as other amounts in other provinces. As well, GST/PST/HST has applied on top of all of these price increases and tobacco tax increases. Thus an increase in the retail price of about $30.00 per carton has been seen during this period in Quebec and Manitoba, and more than $30.00 per carton in the other 8 provinces and sometimes substantially more. (More details will be provided later regarding tobacco tax increases per province. There have been further tobacco tax increases in 2021 federally and in BC and NL.)
A series of other factors as part of a comprehensive strategy would also have contributed to the decrease.
Further information will follow, including provincial breakdowns.
More information regarding CCHS can be obtained from Statistics Canada data tables available at the following links:
Plain Packaging – International Overview – Canadian Cancer Society -2019
Report on plain packaging legislation around the world and what it entails.
The Plain Truth – Learn about Plain and Standardized Tobacco Packaging – Canadian Coalition for Action on Tobacco
The Canadian Coalition for Action on Tobacco created this site to help raise awareness of the need of plain and standardized tobacco packaging in Canada. Currently, 18% of Canadians smoke and this represents 5.4 million Canadians.
Tobacco plain packaging momentum continues worldwide with 38 countries and territories moving forward with regulations
NEWS PROVIDED BY
Canadian Cancer Society (National Office)
Nov 09, 2021, 07:00 ET
Canada among the growing number of countries to implement plain packaging on tobacco packages
TORONTO, Nov. 9, 2021 /CNW/ – An international report released today by the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS) shows there is tremendous momentum worldwide for tobacco plain packaging. There are now 38 countries and territories moving forward with plain packaging, with 21 having adopted the measure, 3 having it in practice, and 14 working on it. Canada implemented plain packaging in 2019 and was among the first 10 countries to do so, and is tied for 19th in the world in terms of package warning size. The CCS report, Cigarette Package Health Warnings: International Status Report, documents global progress on plain packaging, ranks 206 countries and territories on the size of their health warnings on cigarette packages, and lists the 134 countries and territories that now require graphic picture warnings.
The CCS report is being released on the second anniversary of the implementation of plain packaging in Canada at the manufacturer level, on November 9, 2019.
Plain packaging accelerating globally
“There is a strong, unstoppable global trend for countries to implement plain packaging, reinforcing Canada’s implementation of this critically important measure,” says Rob Cunningham, Senior Policy Analyst, CCS. “Plain packaging is essential to protect kids, reduce tobacco use and save lives. “
While there are now 21 countries and territories that have adopted plain packaging, in 2018 only 9 countries had done so.
Plain packaging includes health warnings on packages and prohibits tobacco company branding such as colours, logos and design elements. It also requires the brand name to be a standard font size, style and location on the package and the brand portion of each package to be the same colour such as an unattractive brown. Finally, the package format is standardized. Plain packaging regulations put an end to packaging being used for product promotion, increase the effectiveness of package warnings, curb package deception and decrease tobacco use. Guidelines under the international tobacco treaty, the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), recommend that countries consider implementing plain packaging.
Plain packaging has been implemented in Australia (2012), France (2016), United Kingdom (2016), Norway (2017), Ireland (2017), New Zealand (2018), Saudi Arabia (2019), Turkey (2019), Thailand (2019), Canada (2019), Uruguay (2019), Slovenia (2020), Belgium (2020), Israel (2020), Singapore (2020), Netherlands (2020), Denmark (2021), and Guernsey (2021), and will be implemented in Hungary (2022), Jersey (2022) and Myanmar (2022). Plain packaging has been implemented in practice in 3 countries where packages are imported from a country with plain packaging: Monaco (from France), Cook Islands (from New Zealand), and Niue (from Australia). Plain packaging is under formal consideration in at least 14 countries: Armenia, Chile, Costa Rica, Finland, Georgia, Iran, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mexico, Nepal, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, and Sri Lanka.
Canada’s plain packaging regulations, in effect since November 9, 2019 at the manufacturer level and February 7, 2020, at the retail level, are the best and most comprehensive in the world. They provide a basis for even further government action to reduce tobacco use in Canada and to advance the objective of achieving under 5% tobacco use by 2035.
The number of countries requiring plain packaging is expected to increase even further because of the World Trade Organization (WTO) appeal decision on June 9, 2020, that Australia’s plain packaging requirements are consistent with WTO’s international trade agreements. The tobacco industry had been opposing plain packaging arguing the measure infringed WTO trade agreements, but that argument can no longer have any credibility.
Graphic picture warnings continue to increase
The report found that 134 countries and territories now require picture health warnings on cigarette packages, an increase from 117 in 2018. This represents 70% of the world’s population. Canada was the first country to require picture health warnings in 2001.
“There is unrelenting international momentum for countries to use graphic pictures on cigarette packages to show the lethal health effects of smoking,” says Cunningham. “For decades, the tobacco industry has hidden the harms of smoking behind deceptive marketing and attractive packaging. Picture health warnings and increased warning sizes will help reduce global tobacco industry sales and will save lives lost to cancer and other tobacco-related diseases.”
Currently in Canada, settlement negotiations are under way between provinces and tobacco companies regarding provincial medicare cost recovery lawsuits collectively seeking more than $500 billion in damages. CCS is advocating that public health measures to reduce tobacco use and reform industry behaviour be the priority in any settlement.
Canada ties for 19th in the world in terms of package warning size, with messaging that covers 75% of the package’s front and back. In total 122 countries and territories have required warnings to cover at least 50% of the package front and back (on average), up from 107 in 2018 and 24 in 2008. There are now 70 countries and territories with a size of at least 65% (on average) of the package front and back, and 10 with at least 85%.
Cigarette package warnings are a highly cost-effective way to increase awareness of the negative health effects of smoking and to reduce tobacco use. Picture-based warnings convey a more powerful message than a text-only warning and the effectiveness of warnings is known to increase with size.
Health Canada is working on a new round of health warnings, and has already consulted on placing a health warning directly on the cigarette itself as part of new requirements. Such a measure would be a world first, and is supported by extensive research evidence in Canada and internationally.
The report was released today in conjunction with the 9th session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO FCTC being held virtually November 8-13, and hosted in Geneva, Switzerland. The report supports the implementation of the FCTC. The FCTC has an obligation for parties to require health warnings that “should be 50% or more of the principal display areas but shall be no less than 30% of the display areas” and may be in the form of, or include, picture warnings. There are now 182 parties to the FCTC.
This is the 7th Canadian Cancer Society international report on cigarette package health warnings. Previous reports were published in 2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018.
Cigarette Package Health Warnings report in English
Cigarette Package Health Warnings report in French
Tobacco use kills almost 48,000 Canadians annually. Canada-wide, smokers can call the number on cigarette packages 1-866-366-3667 to receive proven and personalized support to quit smoking. The Canadian Cancer Society operates Smokers’ Helpline digital services (website and live chat) in Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, PEI, and the Yukon.
About the Canadian Cancer Society
The Canadian Cancer Society works tirelessly to save and improve lives. We fund the brightest minds in cancer research. We provide a compassionate support system for all those affected by cancer, from coast to coast and for all types of cancer. As the voice for Canadians who care about cancer, we work with governments to establish health policies to prevent cancer and better support those living with the disease. No other organization does all that we do to improve lives today and to change the future of cancer forever.
Help us make a difference. Call 1-888-939-3333 or visit cancer.ca today.
SOURCE Canadian Cancer Society (National Office)
For further information: Rob Cunningham, Senior Policy Analyst, Canadian Cancer Society, Phone: +1-613-762-4624, Email: rob.cunningham@cancer.ca.
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