New Cigarette Warning Labels Unveiled

Now with more mortal terror!

Hey smokers, get ready to be reminded – in even more graphic detail – every time you light up just how deadly your habit is! Come June, Health Canada will require all packages of cigarettes to carry new warning labels that take up three-quarters of the front of the packages, and the images they bear will be even more discomforting than the ones already on them. Among the new images (collect all 12!) will be one of anti-smoking activist Barbara Tarbox in her final days before succumbing to lung cancer. Needless to say, it's more than a little haunting, which is kind of the point, as studies have shown the current images on packages – cancer-ridden lungs, brains hit by strokes, unhappy kids, an impotent cigarette – have lost their impact on smokers. Other labelling experiments are underway elsewhere, as Australia recently passed a law requiring all cigarettes to be sold in generic packages devoid of any branding.