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Cigarette Packaging To Feature 'Horrifying' Images Starting In March (PHOTOS)

Cigarette Packaging Canada

First Posted: 09/27/11 10:01 AM ET Updated: 09/27/11 12:31 PM ET

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OTTAWA - Ottawa has finally approved bold new labelling for cigarette packages, telling tobacco manufacturers they have until March to conform.

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says the edict shows the government is making good on last winter's promise to horrify smokers into not smoking.

The new labelling will cover 75 per cent of cigarette packages, and include graphic pictures of a cancer-infected mouth, and of an emaciated, cancer-stricken Barb Tarbox.

She was an anti-smoking activist before dying of lung cancer at the age of 42, and her story — among others — will be featured in the new packaging.

Health advocates have praised the campaign, but were suspicious about the government's resolve to implement it.

Tobacco companies have said the campaign won't work, since the public already knows about the risks of smoking.

Retailers will have until next June to ensure all the packages in their stores conform to the new rules.

Check out our gallery of Canada's new cigarette warning labels, plus the new warning labels coming to the U.S. and Australia.

Barb Tarbox: An Inspiration For Anti-Smoking Activists
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Anti-smoking activist Barb Tarbox, who is featured on several of Canada's new cigarette package warning labels, died of lung cancer at 42. She is seen here talking to students in Edmonton in January, 2003.
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Daniel Alexandre Portoraro

Daniel Alexandre Portoraro: Thank You For Not Scaring Me

Credit is due to the Ottawa government for having picked Ms. Tarbox as their new poster child. But for every Barb Tarbox, there is a James Dean. For every death statistic, there is a hero, real or fictitious who has beaten the odds and has come out on top.

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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
HawaiiSteve
be your own lamp... let truth be your light!
1005 Fans
03:51 AM on 09/29/2011
13 years ago I watched my father waste away for three years before he finally died from lung cancer. My last image is of him hacking up great globs of grey matter streaked in blood. I'll never forget that image, and I quit that winter after smoking for 20 years. I just pray that I stopped in time.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
catboycolo
I'll have the coffee, not the KoolAid
9078 Fans
06:36 PM on 09/28/2011
That's great, because the sneering and shunning of the populace is not enough to stop me. Nor is the addiction going to stop by graphic photos. I think kids will start smoking as they always have, but now they will look for the sickest pictures...maybe collect them. No photos! Give out free nic gum, patches, therapy etc...And if you already do that in Cananda then good...we don't down here...
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butchcliff
The future is unwritten
263 Fans
06:15 AM on 09/28/2011
The only people who will even see them are the smokers. They will just tune the pics out. Other images have not worked. Govt makes so much on taxes is why they don't ban them outright. Hypocritical
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waldopepper
I'd tell you all about me if you were my friend.
893 Fans
12:59 AM on 09/28/2011
I am genuinely surprised that the cigarette companies are not producing and giving away for free permanent durable cases so that their victimized consumers cannot then throw away these packages to avoid the imagery. They cannot stop the government from mandating these packages, but they can offer their consumers an alternative.

Mu idea is so sleazy and awful I am surprised they are not doing it, as nothing is beneath them.
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butchcliff
The future is unwritten
263 Fans
06:10 AM on 09/28/2011
Cigarette boxes are available everywhere. They came on the market right after the first warning labels were introduced. The States have had them for even longer.
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waldopepper
I'd tell you all about me if you were my friend.
893 Fans
12:36 PM on 09/28/2011
Yes I know. But I was suggesting that the company provide them for free to subvert the law. Has that happened yet that I am unaware of?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Kristopher Leang
training to take down the elite
109 Fans
09:44 AM on 09/28/2011
what alternative is their to commercial cigarettes which will all have these labels sorry?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
rickthaluddite
What noisy cats are we
428 Fans
 
10:26 PM on 09/27/2011
Whatever it takes to discourage kids from taking up cigarettes or encourage current smokers to think about quitting is okay by me. I smoked my first cigarette when I was eleven years old and my last one when I was twenty-two. I was up to a carton (200 smokes) a week when I finally quit. Good luck to anyone who decides to quit smoking-- it's tough and it usually takes a few tries before you succeed. It might not seem like much, but giving up cigarettes is one of the things for which I'm most proud of myself.
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adejong
0 Fans
08:18 PM on 09/27/2011
Alcoholism affects not only the person drinking, but the family of that person as well. It is far worse than smoking, yet we don't label our bottles...I don't get it.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Kristopher Leang
training to take down the elite
109 Fans
09:58 AM on 09/28/2011
id have to disagree about the far worse. thie rlngs go, thier eyes go, thier skin more wrinkled. the are more likely to have heart attacks, strokes you name it. every major killing disease can bacically be made worse or attirbuted to cancer according to. some people can smoke all their lives and never get sick and live old (maybe they would have lived longer if they didnt who knows) while others become sick in vassst numbers and make up the brunt of those aged 40-60 that they see (my friends who are in home nurses and other nurses)
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antileaf
10 Fans
05:43 PM on 09/27/2011
It's about time. My mother looked very much like Barb when she died from throat/lung cancer.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
cameron d
Good Guys Win
1040 Fans
 
04:43 PM on 09/27/2011
I've never seen the commercial (I don't have cable, so I don't watch Canadian television) and I don't even look at the packs when I buy them. Also, I buy American cigarettes.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MsCanuck
Wife, Mother, New Democrat, Pro-Choice, Atheist
245 Fans
03:47 PM on 09/27/2011
I always thought that this commercial was very good at sending an anti-smoking message and relaying the effect of cigarette smoking: Saw it on American TV a few years back, and thought it was well done.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLtgLg-90K4&feature=related
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viewfromuphere
810 Fans
 
04:27 PM on 09/27/2011
that it is an awesome ad....and very true....
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detalumis
34 Fans
03:45 PM on 09/27/2011
Smoking will die out eventually because it will be considered unfashionable to be a smoker not because of any pictures on the packages. Even today it is already being associated with being older and lower class. When you smoke and go on a commuter train and the person beside you edges away because of your smell that will be a stronger incentive to quit than seeing the pictures of someone dying of cancer. When I see the pic I am just reminded that we have no choice to check out gracefully in peace like they do in Oregon or Switzerland.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
PatientZeroBeat
Dying since 1962
212 Fans
 
02:36 PM on 09/27/2011
In the 1960's after it became medically and scientifically proven and obvious that smoking is very harmful, people wondered why smokers still existed. The every-day advantages of NOT smoking are probably a greater motivation than the devastating long term disadvantages of smoking. In other words, shortness of breath, low sex drive and cost are immediate and obvious, and thus a more effective "tool" against smoking than cancer.

And there is still the conflict between a government allowing cigarette smoking to continue but banning less harmful stuff like asbestos and DDT, not to mention marijuana.
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Averagedancer
79 Fans
02:29 PM on 09/27/2011
Yes, the government is well aware the ads will not stop people from smoking, but they must at least APPEAR as though they are interested in doing so. They will never give up the tax revenues collected through smoking, drinking, and gambling. Really, the only reason that prostitution and drugs aren't legal is because the government hasn't figured out how to tax them to the hilt yet. Once they do figure it out, nothing will be out of bounds. It's about money. Always has been, always will be.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
raker
1519 Fans
02:05 PM on 09/27/2011
I like the photos. We sanitize illness and whitewash health risks in this country, especially when it comes to cancer. Cancer is a horror, so horrifying pictures are real and therefore good.
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viewfromuphere
810 Fans
 
04:30 PM on 09/27/2011
agreed....death these days is either hidden or "fixed" in the funeral home.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
ljkcan
I don't let geographical borders limit my thinking
1643 Fans
12:03 AM on 09/28/2011
I agree my father a long time smoker quit but still died from cancer. Perhaps if a young person picks up a package and see's the images they will never smoke.

The truth is ugly watching a loved one die of cancer is very difficult.
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sourpatch575
37 Fans
02:03 PM on 09/27/2011
Does the gov't really think these ads will stop smokers from smoking? The obvious answer is no, so why have them. Let these people keep smoking and eventually die a very slow death.
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ZalaK
52 Fans
03:34 PM on 09/27/2011
Wow, that's harsh - and not all that black and white. If these images help deter one person from continuing to smoke then the campaign is successful. Most studies show that fear triggered by the photos does work. More likely new or young smokers rather than someone smoking for years.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/11/101119205212.htm
http://www.bnet.com/blog/health-fit-tips/will-new-graphic-images-deter-smokers/1021
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viewfromuphere
810 Fans
 
04:31 PM on 09/27/2011
been to any GOP debates lately?
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HerBee
27 Fans
01:30 PM on 09/27/2011
Would it not be easier to prohibit the sale of cigarettes?
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Averagedancer
79 Fans
02:30 PM on 09/27/2011
$$$$.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
elizlucinda
a mind is a terrible thing to waste
956 Fans
05:25 PM on 09/27/2011
It doesn't work....If that was the case we wouldn't have billions being spent on illicit drugs
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