Originally published at: Cigarettes in Canada to be individually labeled with warnings | Boing Boing
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Do you get all the warnings in each pack or do you need to buy more cigarettes to collect the entire set?
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There are already reports of counterfeit copies of the rare and much sought-after “CANCER!CANCER!CANCER!CANCER!CANCER!CANCER!” version.
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Left handed smokers will not be stymied by the messages since they will be upside-down when they look at them…
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KING CAUSES CANCER
CANADA
A quick drag and you’ve committed treason.
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Text!? Just text? That’s kind of tame.
(FYI: Google “Singapore cigarette packages”)
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Should also print a timeline of life on each. Birth at the tip, death at the butt.
Just a reminder.
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about 10% of teens regularly smoke cigarettes, according to the American Lung Association.
At first glance this seems like a high percentage in 2023. Then consider that at least 20% of adults, let alone teenagers, can be counted on to engage in obviously and objectively stupid behaviours (smoking, voting a narcissistic grifter for President, etc.). I’ll count this as a win for an aggressive decades-long public education campaign against one of the most evil industries out there, so more of this please.
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Somewhere it’s indicated that the combusted black dye making up the warnings doesn’t add to the over-all carcinogenicity? (“randomly insert ‘ironically’ into that question for extra smooth flavour”)
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We have the gruesome images on the packaging as well. The new thing is the text directly on the cigarettes themselves.
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Someone I follow is in Greece and they showed pics of cigarette packs with like grieving families after their loved one died from smoking. I’ve seen others with diseased lungs on it. I am not sure how much the packaging is affecting rates, but the general education seems to be. And it looks like a lot of people are vaping instead.
You know traditionally tobacco wasn’t inhaled. They would fill their mouths like you do with a cigar, as well as use it in smudging rituals. It was after these smoother strains of tobacco came about where you could actually inhale it.
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Unless you vape, which I suspect is the majority of new smokers.
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a few years later it was revealed that smoking the ink used in printing the messages was more carcinogenic than the tobacco itself
also - even if you mandated all cigarettes must have filters made from wet human excrement, i know smokers who’d still jam those suckers betwixt their lips to get a hit
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Anyone still smoking actual cigarettes in 2023 is not gonna be dissuaded by scary words. They know the risks.
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The French packets still manage to be weirdly artistic (whilst still being the same shade of shit-green as every other country). It’s hard to describe, but you can tell the photos (of the usual crop of diseased body parts and unsubtle metaphors) were taken by someone with an aesthetic sensibility.
Not that it will make any difference to existing smokers, nicotine is as addictive as fucking heroin.
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Let’s hope the ink is non-carcinogenic.
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My first thought was, “Great, now they’ll be smoking ink that has fuck knows what in it.”
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And if that doesn’t do the trick:
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Ciggies are also >$20/pack here in BC, which certainly helps prevent kids from buying them. My first pack was 79 cents in 1985 (my last one was about $6 in 1994).
Antismoking advocacy in Canada has certainly reached a point of diminishing returns. That said, a 1% reduction in smoking is a very large number of actual humans who won’t die from smoking, so the work is still worth doing. (also I am married to a health policy advocate)
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You could even do the “each cigarette takes 11 minutes off of your life” with 11 minutes marked off from tip to butt…
Though some may just see it as a timed challenge / reminder of the length of their smoke break…
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