Aglukkaq unveils new cigarette packages with dire warnings about smoking

Leona Aglukkaq, Nunavut MP and federal health minister (centre), unveils the designs for new tobacco packaging, with Bobbe Wood, president of the Heart and Stroke Foundation (left) and Chris Alexander, MP for Ajax-Pickering (right). (PHOTO COURTESY OF L. AGLUKKAQ)

Leona Aglukkaq, Nunavut’s MP and the federal health minister, announced that, as of June 19, Canadian retailers must only sell cigarette and little cigar packages that display the new, larger health warning messages.

“Today we’ve fulfilled our promise to put new, larger health warnings on cigarette and little cigar packages across Canada,” said Aglukkaq in a June 19 news release. “This initiative continues our efforts to inform Canadians — especially young people — about the health hazards of smoking.”

The bold new health warnings cover three-quarters of the front and back of the main panel package and include a Canada-wide quitline phone number and web address.

The quitline connects smokers to free counselling over the phone, provided by their province or territory, to help them quit. The web address allows smokers to access online smoking cessation resources from provincial, territorial and federal government websites.

You can see more of the messages on the Health Canada website.