The Lung Association of Nova Scotia is welcoming Ottawa’s decision to implement plain cigarette packaging legislation this fall.
All packages will have the same drab brown colour and the packages themselves will be standardized to a slide-and-shell format, Health Canada said in a news release Wednesday. The text on the packages will have the same font, colour, size and location.
The measures will also ban cigarettes longer than 85 millimetres.
The legislation will come into effect Nov. 9
“The legislation represents the strongest form of plain packaging that is grounded in research and supported by evidence,” said Mohammed Al-hamdani, director of health initiatives for the Lung Association of Nova Scotia.
“Plain packages in slide-and-shell format with a dark brown background and standardized fonts for brand names will go a long way in decreasing favourable perceptions about smoking, increasing graphic warning recognition, and reducing the likelihood of smoking.”
Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of premature death and disease in Canada, killing half of all long-term users, Health Canada said in Wednesday’s release. More than four million Canadians use tobacco.
