Three major cigarette manufacturers in Canada have agreed to begin phasing out "light" and "mild" on their packaging, the Competition Bureau announced Thursday.

Imperial Tobacco Canada Limited, Rothmans Benson & Hedges Inc. and JTI-Macdonald Corp. will begin changing their labels on Dec. 31 and will have the rollout completed by July 31.

Light- and mild-labelled cigarettes vary in their tar content, but critics have long held that they're not necessarily safer than traditional cigarettes.

"Through this action Canada joins other countries where cigarettes are no longer described as light or mild," said Sheridan Scott, the commissioner of the Competition Bureau, in a release. "Light, mild, and similar descriptors are no longer used in the European Union or in Australia.

"I am pleased that the tobacco companies have agreed to voluntarily discontinue use of these descriptors in advance of anticipated regulations requiring their removal," Scott said.

The federal agency said the change will affect 79 brands of cigarettes along with 18 varieties of fine-cut tobacco. The Competition Bureau also plans to secure an agreement with smaller manufacturers in Canada who market their products as light and mild.

A lobby group launched a complaint three years ago with the Competition Bureau about the use of the terms. The inquiry into the complaint will be discontinued.

However, the Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada criticized the move, saying that the Competition Bureau had been "snookered."

Cynthia Callard, the group's executive director, said tobacco companies may eliminate the words "light" and "mild," but will likely use other marketing tactics to the same ends. She said that the measures the tobacco companies are agreeing to are inadequate.

In 2001, then health minister Allan Rock introduced legislation, which failed to pass, that proposed banning "light" and "mild" on cigarette packaging.

In 2003, the federal government asked the major tobacco companies to voluntarily drop the controversial descriptors but they refused. Callard said the companies have manipulated the original intention of the legislation.

Call for plain packaging

"Five years ago, we talked about this deception and said that they had to stop selling light cigarettes and this has been interpreted as we have to take 'light' off the packages but they're still using a different way of being deceptive," Callard said.

For example, Callard said, there are 11 brands of Players cigarettes on the market. She noted that smokers are led to believe that one brand is less harmful than others.

"If we're going to have a legal market for cigarettes, then they should certainly be sold in ways that are not promotional, that are not deceptive, not enticing and that would be to move towards plain packaging," Callard told reporters.

Callard also said that because the program is voluntary, there can be no penalties applied.

According to Statistics Canada, 22 per cent of Canadians 12 and older, or about 5.9 million people, are smokers.