There’s hope packaging idea will be the ‘endgame’
Industry fighting back against federal government proposal
It’s as if the No Name brand was getting into the tobacco game. No more super slims. No choice of regular or king size. No logo on the filter. No colourful graphics next to the horrifying health warnings on packs, pouches and tins.
Welcome to Health Canada’s proposed new packaging rules for tobacco products. Some ape Australia’s; others go further. The federal government is seeking feedback through next month on the measures that are under consideration.
It is another step in what some hope will be the “endgame” for cigarettes, which may well be why it has been met by such fierce resistance from the tobacco industry.
Tobacco products are still used by more than five million Canadians, killing about 37,000 of them a year.
While youth smoking has dropped, the steep declines of the past decade have levelled off, with about one in six reporting lighting up in the past month, according to the latest Health Canada data.
Plain packaging — now used in Australia, the United Kingdom and France and being considered in 10 other countries, from Sweden to Singapore — is a necessary step in ending “a tragedy of the 20th century,” according to Cynthia Callard of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada.
“Smoking doesn’t kill all smokers — it only kills half of them,” she said. “If a fifth of Canadians are smoking, it means one in 10 Canadians is going to die prematurely.”
Getting rid of the logos and colours makes the graphic health warnings already on packages newly powerful, because the brain is getting one unambiguous message, Callard said.
“People are always worried about youth — as they should be — but I think it will be powerful for everybody,” she said. “It rebrands the products for them. This time, the package is going to look and feel different.
“Even for the longtime smoker, it will be a new chapter in their relationship to this drug to which they are addicted.
The industry has fired back. Imperial Tobacco Canada spokesman Jeffrey Guiler called the consultations “basically a sham” and charged that Australia saw more youth smoking and contraband.
“With results like this, one has to ask why the Canadian government continues to cite Australia as the model to follow,” Guiler said. “Nobody in Canada starts smoking because of the packs, which are already hidden from public view and covered with graphic health warnings.”
JTI-Macdonald Corp. general manager Igor Dzaja also argues the Canadian government should crack down on illegal smokes “instead of implementing another misguided regulation.”
Plain packaging sets a precedent for “interfering with consumers’ freedom” on other products, like alcohol or junk food.
“Canada should avoid importing a failed Australian experiment,” read a release.
David Hammond of the School of Public Health at the University of Waterloo begs to differ.
“That’s not the opinion of the Australian government or independent analyses, and I’ve never seen that from anyone who hasn’t been paid by the companies,” he said.
Like Canada, Australia had graphic warnings and display restrictions in stores, yet plain packaging still contributed to the largest declines in smoking ever in that country, he said.
One national survey showing a 15-per-cent drop in adult smoking between 2010 and 2013 did include a just under one-percentage-point increase for youths. A tobacco company trumpeted: “Youth smoking rates soar two years post plain packs.”
But health officials pointed out that the sample size was too small to be statistically significant. Meanwhile, the number of young adults who had never smoked had risen nearly five per cent.
According to Cancer Council Victoria, independent figures show “relatively low and stable levels” of illicit tobacco use. Surveys say fewer smokers report using unbranded tobacco than before.
The argument that cigarette packs don’t make people smoke is a familiar one to Hammond, an expert witness to governments taking on industry lawsuits. He looked at four decades of previously secret tobacco industry documents disclosed through court cases and found it consistently showed the pack does matter.
Novel packs seemed “modern,” “elegant” and “unique” and influenced how harmful the cigarettes inside seemed to consumers. Evidence from consumer tracking showed it worked to increase brands’ market share.
Hammond — who also studies food packaging — said that just as Coke is red and Diet Coke silver, pale colours fool smokers into thinking some cigarettes are “light.”
“The difference is there’s no other consumer product that if you use it exactly as you’re supposed to, it kills you,” Hammond said.
“All of the evidence right now suggests that light or low-tar cigarettes are either as harmful as, or more harmful than, the cigarettes that were sold in the 1950s or 1960s. That is the false impression that is being conveyed on packaging.”
Another example is the “perfume” packs that research shows appeal to young women, reinforcing notions that smoking keeps you slim and skinny sticks are less harmful.
“We have packs called Vogue Super Slim in Canada and they are pink,” Hammond said. “I have a three-year-old daughter and I always have cigarette packs around my office. She picks it up and looks at it.”
The tobacco industry has fought plain packaging around the world.
“This is the last remaining bastion of their marketing and that is why they fight this so hard,” Hammond said.
“Canada came close to doing this 30 years ago. The industry has come out and said, ‘Any country who does this we’ll fight it and we’ll fight it with all of our resources.’ ”
Anti-smoking advocates see commitments by the Liberal government to introduce plain packaging as a sign that Canada is again taking tobacco control seriously.
Next up for debate are proposals that include stronger price controls, reducing the number of places tobacco is sold, and better training for doctors to help smokers quit.
“It’s the first burst of energy we’ve had at the federal level since 2000,” Callard said.
“There’s an excitement about what comes next.
“It feels like we’re back in the game — it’s a different game.”