Anti-smoking label policy 'senseless': CMAJ

A pack of Canadian cigarettes with a 2007 warning label. Canada's warnings haven't changed in a decade, but doctors say they need to be refreshed to stay effective. (Shaun Best/Reuters)

The federal government's move away from tougher warning labels on cigarette packages is a "senseless policy shift" that may lead to increased smoking rates and smoking-related deaths, the Canadian Medical Association Journal says.

In late September, Health Canada abruptly announced at a closed meeting with provincial and territorial officials that it was suspending plans for larger, more graphic warning labels and a toll-free number for a quit-smoking phone line, the journal's editors say.

Instead, the government said its tobacco policy will focus on fighting contraband cigarettes.

"Warning labels are an effective, inexpensive communication strategy," writes Matthew Stanbrook, a respirologist and CMAJ deputy editor under editor in chief Dr. Paul Hébert.

"We should all be outraged about the suspension of efforts to renew tobacco warning labels," the editorial concludes.

"Let us therefore hope that our elected federal officials hear and heed the many Canadians whom their senseless policy shift has disappointed and angered."

After television, labels are the most important source of information for smokers and non-smokers on how smoking harms health, the authors say.

"The stakes are very high," Hébert said. "Not adopting labels effectively means more people will die from smoking-related complications."

The larger and more striking the labels are, the more effective they are, according to the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project.

As the chief principal investigator for the international project, psychology Prof. Geoffrey Fong of the University of Waterloo has studied the effectiveness of the graphic warning labels that different countries require on cigarette packs.

"Our research has shown very definitively that the actual effectiveness of the warning labels in Canada has gone down over the years, rather dramatically actually," Fong said, noting Canada has fallen behind other countries.

'Not ready to move forward': Health Canada

Advertisers change their campaigns every year or two because they know there is a washout effect from repeatedly seeing the same message, Fong said.

For the same reason, it's important to keep the graphic warnings on cigarette packs fresh with new information on the health risks of smoking, he said.

Countries such as Thailand and Uruguay have refreshed their labels three or four times in the past five years. Canada's labels have stayed the same for a decade, the CMAJ editorial says.

Warning labels inform smokers and non-smokers about the harmful effects of the addiction. (Carolyn Kaster/Associated Press)

"After years of research and millions of taxpayer dollars, Health Canada has failed to change a single label," the editorial says.

The authors say Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq has previously shown leadership in getting tobacco control legislation passed through Parliament. They say she should carefully consider efforts of other countries to fight tobacco consumption, such as Australia's recent decision to ban brand logos from cigarette packs.

"The government of Canada is committed to reducing youth smoking, helping Canadians to quit smoking and addressing the pressing issue of contraband tobacco," Health Canada said in an email to CBC News.

"Health Canada continues to examine the renewal of health warning messages on tobacco packaging but is not ready to move forward at this time."

Quitting messages

The department said a new act that came into force in July makes it harder for the tobacco industry to entice young people to use tobacco products. The new law bans many kinds of flavoured cigarettes and imposes new restrictions on sales of mini-cigars.

Health Canada also said it has allocated $15.8 million annually in funding to support programs across Canada aimed at helping people stop smoking, preventing youth from starting to smoke and protecting Canadians from exposure to second-hand smoke.

The current warning labels on a typical pack of cigarettes in Canada take up half of each side with text and an image.

Smoker Angelique Koukou, a college student in Toronto, said they could be bigger.

"If the warning label was bigger than that, that would assist me to quit smoking," Koukou said.

Smoker Jeremy Kinden in Toronto disagreed, saying he didn't think a picture would help motivate him to quit.