EXPERTS ON TOBACCO WARNINGS DENOUNCE GOVERNMENT'S RATIONALE FOR CANCELLATION
OF WARNING REVISIONS

TORONTO, Sept. 29 /CNW/ - Experts on tobacco package warning systems today denounced the federal government's decision to cancel the promised revisions of Canada's warnings. Over the last six years, Health Canada has spent millions of dollars on all aspects of the development of the revisions and now they are sitting on the shelf, a total waste of taxpayers' money.

"The current warnings have been in use for ten years and are now extremely stale," said Garfield Mahood, executive director of the Non-Smokers' Rights Association and author of an expert report on tobacco warnings for the World Health Organization.  "Smokers have now seen the same warnings 20 times a day, more than 60,000 times over the life of the current warnings.  This renders them almost invisible for some smokers and boring for others."

"Health Canada says that it needs to complete research to determine the effectiveness of any proposed warnings," said Professor David Hammond, an internationally recognized expert and advisor on tobacco warnings to the World Health Organization.  "The new warnings will save lives.  If the government is serious about preventing youth smoking and helping Canadians to quit, the Prime Minister will find a way to introduce the promised warnings."

"The decision to cancel the refreshed warnings, including the plans to add a toll-free, quit smoking number, is tragic," said Professor Geoffrey Fong, a consultant on tobacco package warning systems to governments on four continents.  "This decision has eliminated a critical opportunity to give strong warnings to kids against starting to smoke and helpful advice to smokers through a toll-free quit line. It is akin to a decision to stop dispensing advice to boil water in the face of a cholera epidemic.  It is just senseless."

"This decision will have a devastating effect on the development of warnings internationally," said Hammond. "I know of many countries that are involved in decisions to introduce stronger warnings. Many have been waiting in anticipation to see what Canada would produce with its long-awaited warnings revisions. The news that Canada has backed away from warnings that were ready to be released will send a very negative message to other countries, especially developing countries where the main source of risk information about tobacco is the cigarette package."

"Health Minister Aglukkaq has said, 'If we are going to sustain health care in the long term in Canada, we need to put some energy into dealing with preventable illnesses,' " said Fong.  "How much energy would be involved in taking the new warnings off the shelf and putting them onto the packages?  A stroke of the minister's pen would be prevention in its purest form, at no cost to the taxpayer, to implement a public health information measure of proven effectiveness."

Fong, the principal investigator of a study being conducted in 20 countries, including Canada, to evaluate tobacco control policies such as warnings and smoke-free laws, said "every one of our indicators of label impact have declined in Canada over the last 7 years, some by over 50%. Our evidence demonstrates very clearly that Canada's failure to revise its warnings is having a detrimental effect.  Brazil has revised its warnings three times in six years!"

"The Canadian Cancer Society, Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Canadian Medical Association, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, The Lung Association and provincial health ministers have pressed the government to implement the warnings," said Mahood. "What deal has the government struck with the tobacco industry in the face of heavy lobbying that would justify flying in the face of such strong evidence supporting refreshed warnings?  Given the almost unanimous support, apart from Big Tobacco of course, what possible rationale could there be for cancelling enactment of the new warnings?  Many Canadians want to know."

For further information:

Geoffrey T. Fong, PhD, Professor of Psychology and Health Studies, University of Waterloo
Tel: [phone] X33597

David Hammond, PhD, Department of Health Studies & Gerontology, University of Waterloo
Tel: [phone] X36462

Garfield Mahood, OC, Executive Director, Non-Smokers' Rights Association
Tel: [phone], Cell: [phone]