The Welland Tribune

Cigarette packs with graphic images, blunt warnings are effective

Ottawa is testing new warnings to wrap around packages

- JANICE DICKSON

OTTAWA — One image shows a woman’s torso with a cigarette being burned into her bladder through underwear.

Another depicts a man holding a colostomy bag, adding the words, “You may need to use a bag as a toilet for the rest of your life.”

There’s also a naked man holding a sign over his lower body that says, “out of order.”

The federal government is testing graphic new warnings to wrap around cigarette packages, and the stark message is clear: smoking is bad and it can damage more than your lungs. The proposed warnings, shown to focus groups across the country, are meant to reinforce what people already know about cigarettes and add informatio­n that’s less widely known.

Canadians reported that cigarette packages with graphic images and pointed health warnings are more effective than clichés or rhyming slogans.

The health warnings considered most effective flag types of ailments smoking can cause, like colorectal and stomach cancers, as well as oral diseases and damage to blood vessels. The warnings are accompanie­d by explicit images showing real people who are suffering from the problems.

Youth smokers and non-smokers, as well as young adult and adult smokers were asked to assess mockups of 39 potential health warnings for cigarette packages and 11 potential tag lines to accompany them, which include contact informatio­n for those wishing to seek help. Focus groups were held last winter in Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver and Quebec City.

The government’s planned Tobacco Products Labelling Regulation­s currently require 16 rotating health warnings on packages of cigarettes and little cigars, though that number could change when the labelling regulation­s are amended.

Youth participan­ts, aged 15 to 19, noted learning new informatio­n in the focus groups, like the fact colorectal cancer could result in reliance on a colostomy bag. Vomiting blood as a symptom of stomach cancer was unknown to most participan­ts. Young people also reported learning that smoking can result in erectile dysfunctio­n.

The health warnings that people found least effective had broader messages, like “Smoked to death” and “Thought you would only try it once?”

But some of these warnings didn’t match their picture, and that didn’t jive with participan­ts. For instance, in the text warning “Smoked to death,” the picture was of a person who’s alive.

Participan­ts said images considered unrealisti­c, like a gangrenous foot, were less credible because they didn’t believe it could be caused by smoking alone. While most were aware that cigarettes damage blood vessels, many did not know that loss of circulatio­n can cause gangrene. And some young participan­ts said they did not know what gangrene is.

 ?? HEALTH CANADA THE CANADIAN PRESS ?? A cigarette package shows a man with a colostomy bag warning ‘you may need to use a bag as a toilet for the rest of your life.’
HEALTH CANADA THE CANADIAN PRESS A cigarette package shows a man with a colostomy bag warning ‘you may need to use a bag as a toilet for the rest of your life.’

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