Canada on the threshold of flavored tobacco ban
Published on June 5, 2009 8:27 AM
Last week, the Canadian federal government began the consideration of the introduced proposal to implement the nationwide ban on product containing fruit-flavored tobacco, including cigarettes and cigars, which anti-smoking activists claim are being advertised as candy in order to attract children to try them and start smoking.
In addition, the rules and regulations concerning the marketing strategies of tobacco products would as well be toughen up to avoid a loophole that permits tobacco products to be promoted and marketed in magazines and newspapers, which are intended for adults, however, in fact are available to everyone and are even presented for free as advertising publications.
Canada Department of Public Health spokesperson Jacquelyn Hirst-Nemeth declared the tobacco industry internal documentation demonstrated it was making use of numerous fruit flavors, among which were strawberry, grape, apple, banana and watermelon to allure adolescents to have a try of sweet tobacco. Therefore, they tried to addict children to tobacco.
Mrs. Hirst-Nemeth said on a press conference held in Ottawa that everyone should be aware that fruit-flavored tobacco is neither sweet nor safe for health and it should not be advertised in that way.
The representatives of Canadian tobacco companies strongly denied their involvement in advertising fruit-flavored products to teenagers. The nation’s major cigarette manufacturers stated they do not produce any fruit-flavored or candy products, since such goods are only imported by local retailers and produced overseas.
The rate of cigarette and tobacco consumption among Canadian adolescents has dropped by 15 percent during the last decade: from almost 30% in 1998 to 15 percent in 2008. However, local anti-tobacco activists are concerned with the fact that fruit-flavored cigarettes and tobacco products might contribute to changes in the rates.
Smokefree Canada executive Jason Polanski said that it seems that adults including parents could not be aware about flavored tobacco products, however their kids started trying them a long time ago.
If approved, the introduced regulation will not prohibit menthol tobacco.
Tobacco industry avoided TV and magazine advertising for almost a decade since they had been looking on the Supreme Court of Canada to interpret the regulations. Two years ago the Supreme Court decided to leave TV advertising illicit whereas it allowed publishing the tobacco ads in print media.
The proposal made public last week would as well prohibit cigarette ads in almost all print media including local magazines and newspapers. That would lock the last loophole, which permitted tobacco ads in print media with more than 80 percent of adult audience, according to publishers.
However, since the law permits ads in entertainment-oriented tabloids given for free in the majority of cities across the country, it was not possible to estimate the percent of the readership to be of legal smoking age.
Canada's leading cigarette producer, Imperial Tobacco Canada, was as well examining the introduced proposal; however Lorraine Clement, a spokesperson for Imperial Tobacco Canada stated the company has been very careful to review all their advertisements before publishing them, as well as to get ascertained that the ads have not been aimed at teenagers.
Element mentioned that the federal authorities should as well do their best to overcome the booming black market of cigarettes, since the criminals would definitely not comply with any restrictions and have already enticed thousands of adolescents to cigarettes.
