OTTAWA, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- The Canadian government has decided, after examining cigarette package health warnings, to scuttle its plan to use more drastic warnings, officials said.
Health Canada, the federal public health department headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, said the government will focus instead on working to eliminate contraband cigarettes and give up the task of changing the messages on cigarette packages to include larger and more grotesque cancer-victim images that would cover approximately 90 percent of the packaging, the Toronto Globe and Mail reported Tuesday.
The Globe and Mail said it is unclear why the government cannot track down tobacco smugglers and simultaneously update the warning labels.
Ida Chong, British Columbia's minister of healthy living and sport, said, "It was a bit of a disappointment. We know that warning labels on tobacco packages do work. We know that a (toll-free) quit line is helpful."
Health Canada said it "continues to examine the renewal of health warning messages on tobacco packaging but is not ready to move forward at this time."
"I would expect that the tobacco industry has been lobbying against these warnings just as they have lobbied against improvements to warnings on tobacco packages over the last 20 years," said a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society, Rob Cunningham.
