Canadian smokers will soon find warnings on individual cigarettes reminding them they contain "poison in every puff" thanks to a new government policy.
Ottawa will now require cigarette manufacturers to print warnings on individual cigarettes in an effort to help cut back on smoking related illnesses and deaths, according to the New York Times.
Those messages will include the "poison" line as well as warning that "cigarettes cause impotence" and that "tobacco smoke harms children."
The new warnings will be printed in English and French, the official languages of the nation.
This isn't the first time Canada has attempted to curb smoking through direct intervention on the products; in 2001, it became the first country to require manufacturers to include graphic images of cancerous tumors and decaying teeth on cigarette boxes.
Canada was also the first country to ban smoking on domestic flights, outlawing the practice as early as 1994.
The anti-smoking messaging appears to be working; only 10.2 per cent of people over the age of 15 smoke cigarettes in Canada. The government hopes to further reduce that number to less than five per cent by 2035.
Despite the decline in smoking, nearly 50,000 Canadians die every year due to smoking, according to Canada's census agency.
A study published in 2006 sampling smokers from Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia found that people who noticed the warnings had better awareness of the health risks associated with smoking.
The new labels are expected to roll out over the course of the year.
“We are taking action by being the first country in the world to label individual cigarettes with health warning messages,” Carolyn Bennett, Canada’s minister of mental health and addictions, said in a statement. “This bold step will make health warning messages virtually unavoidable, and together with updated graphic images displayed on the package, will provide a real and startling reminder of the health consequences of smoking.”
Phillip Morris International's Canadian subsidiary Rothmans, Benson and Hedges, said it supports the new policy.
