Canada's latest anti-smoking push is a first — but global effort is lagging behind

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As Canada takes a novel approach to reducing cigarette smoking, some experts are concerned that the rest of the world still has a long way to go to catch up.

"If we don't do something more globally, we're going to have many hundreds of millions of deaths on our hands from this epidemic, as the World Health Organization calls it," said Jeff Drope, a research professor at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Earlier this week, a fresh set of smoking label regulations came into effect from Health Canada. These regulations will require warning labels on individual cigarettes, not just cigarette packs.

The warnings will be written in English and French, on the paper around the filter. They range from warnings about harming children to causing impotence and cancer.

"We want to have these messages have as much reach as possible to be a constant reminder — and these warnings are going to be ones that you simply cannot ignore," said Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst for the Canadian Cancer Society. 

Manufacturers have until the end of July 2024 to ensure the warnings are printed on all king-size cigarettes sold. Those requirements will extend to regular-size cigarettes, and little cigars with tipping paper and tubes, in April 2025.

The move, which was announced earlier this year, makes Canada the first country in the world to take that step.

"It's a great way to reach smokers every day with every cigarette, with every puff during every smoke break in every community across the country," Cunningham told The Current guest host Catherine Cullen. 

Cunningham said it's too early to quantify just how effective the approach will be, but the statistics show Canada may be heading in the right direction. According to research from the University of Waterloo, 10 per cent of Canadians over 15 smoked cigarettes in 2020, down from nearly 24 per cent in 2000.

But while there's been significant progress made in Canada, Drope said there's still a lot more work to do to curb smoking globally.

"We have nearly a billion smokers in the world, and then several hundred million more people that use other tobacco products," he told Cullen.

Drope is the lead author of the Tobacco Atlas, an annual report that looks at the state of smoking around the world.

He said that, on the one hand, global smoking trends are "excellent."