Health Canada and Public Safety Canada address the Government's efforts on health hazards associated with tobacco use

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Letter to the Editor
2011-10
January 24, 2011

OTTAWA - Health Canada and Public Safety Canada would like to address some recent statements in the media regarding our government's efforts to protect Canadians from the health hazards associated with tobacco use.

Tobacco use places heavy burdens on society. It remains the most serious preventable public health problem in Canada, with more than 37,000 Canadians a year dying from diseases attributable to tobacco use. And the threat of contraband tobacco fuels organized crime and threatens the safety of our communities.

That is why Government of Canada partners in the Federal Tobacco Control Strategy are taking action on a number of fronts to combat the supply of contraband tobacco while continuing efforts to reduce the demand for legal tobacco products.

Our government is committed to combating contraband tobacco and crime in our communities.  The RCMP and Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) continue to work together with their law enforcement partners on the local, national and international levels, to prevent this illegal activity.  Importing and manufacturing of drugs must be tackled wherever it occurs.

That is why, in 2008, the federal government announced an additional $20 million investment over four years to combat contraband tobacco, which has contributed to a new public awareness campaign, a dedicated RCMP Contraband Tobacco Team, and the introduction of two new CBSA detector dog teams trained for tobacco detection.

The government has also introduced legislation that takes action to work with the Obama Administration to fight cross-border crime in our shared waterways.  If passed, this legislation would allow law enforcement from Canada and the US to pursue and arrest criminals regardless of whose side of our shared waterway they are on. The RCMP and U.S. officers were successful in seizing over 1.4 million contraband cigarettes in a 57 day pilot project of this initiative in 2007.

This will give law enforcement further tools they need to tackle major organized drug crime, and our government will continue to do more.  But these efforts do not prevent us from continuing to inform Canadians about the dangers of all tobacco use.

On December 30th, the Government of Canada announced that it intends to introduce new, stronger health warning messages on cigarette and little cigar packages that will build on the success of the current tobacco warning labels and help us to better reach the approximately five million Canadians who continue to smoke.

The current messages, along with other initiatives such as provincial and municipal smoking bans, are part of the comprehensive tobacco control environment that has helped reduce the smoking rates in Canada from 24% in 2000 to the current 18%, representing about 1.2 million fewer smokers.

Health Canada is proposing to increase the size of the warnings, to 75% of the front and back of packs from the current 50%. The new messages would highlight a new set of tobacco-related diseases and, for the first time, would present compelling stories and "testimonials" from people who have been affected by tobacco use.  Health Canada's public opinion research indicates that the new messages could better reach people with low literacy, youth, hard-core smokers, and people thinking about quitting. In addition, numerous international studies support the proposed changes.

A social marketing campaign targeting smokers, specifically those 20 to 34 years old, would complement the health warning messages by encouraging smokers to quit and providing them with resources to help them quit.  The strategy will include the use of social media to encourage a dialogue with smokers at a time when they are making critical health choices.

Today's tough new anti-tobacco measures are another step in our efforts to assist Canadians in quitting smoking and discourage teenagers and young adults from starting to smoke in the first place.

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