Health Canada has outlined proposed changes to the current labelling requirements for tobacco packaging

Health Canada has released a consultation document,"Building On Success - A Proposal for New Health-Related Information on Tobacco Product Labels," outlining proposed changes to the current labelling requirements for tobacco product packaging.

This consultation document presents an overview of tobacco product labelling in Canada and other countries, a summary of Health Canada's research on the current messages, and a set of proposed changes to tobacco product labelling.

In addition to comments and feedback on the specific proposals outlined in the consultation document, we encourage groups and individuals to provide other comments and suggestions that would enable Health Canada (within its mandate and under the authority of the Tobacco Act) to provide labelling that is noticeable, informative and credible.

According to the latest results from the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS), for data collected between February and December 2003, over 5 million people, representing roughly 21% of the population age 15 years and older, were current smokers, of which 17% reported smoking daily. Approximately 23% of men were current smokers, higher than the proportion of women (18%).