Countries around the world require health warnings to be printed on cigarette packages. Here are some examples:

Canada

In June 2000, the federal Tobacco Products Information Regulations was passed - requiring that all cigarette packages display  health warning messages that take up at least 50 per cent of the main display surface of the package. Canada is the first country in the world to implement such strong labelling regulations. The following sixteen warnings, containing both text and graphics, must be equally displayed among brands:

 

Cigarettes are highly addictive	Each year, the equivalent of a small city dies from tobacco use
Children see, children do	Cigarettes leave you breathless
Cigarettes hurt babies	Cigarettes are a heartbreaker
Tobacco use can make you impotent	Cigarettes cause lung cancer (1)
Don't poison us	Cigarettes cause lung cancer (2)
Tobacco smoke hurts babies	Idle but deadly
Cigarettes cause strokes	Where there's smoke there's hydrogen cyanide
Cigarettes cause mouth diseases	You're not the only one smoking this cigarette

The regulations also require that the inside of the cigarette packages display information on the health risks of smoking, and the benefits of quitting smoking. As well, information about the toxic chemicals found in tobacco smoke will have to be displayed on the side of the package.
 

United States

In 1984, four rotating warnings were required to appear on cigarette packages and advertisements, prefaced with "Surgeon General's warning":

• Smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, emphysema, and may complicate pregnancy.
• Quitting smoking now greatly reduces serious risks to your health.
• Smoking by pregnant women may result in fetal injury, premature birth, and low birth weight.
• Cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide.

The following health warnings appear on packages of smokeless tobacco (snuff, chewing tobacco):

• This product may cause gum disease and tooth loss.
• This product may cause mouth cancer.
• This product is not a safe alternative to cigarettes.

Under the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act of 2009, larger and stronger warning labels will be required for smokeless tobacco products in 2010, and larger, stronger and graphic warning labels will be required for cigarettes in 2012.

European Union (EU)

In May 2001, a directive of the European Parliament and Council regulating tobacco products became law. Health warnings shall cover at least 30 per cent of the front and 40 per cent of the back surface of individual packets of tobacco. The following warnings will be rotated on the most visible surface:

• Smoking kills/smoking can kill.
• Smoking seriously harms you and others around you.

And the additional warnings shall be printed on the other most visible surface of the package:

• Smokers die younger.
• Smoking clogs the arteries and causes heart attacks and strokes.
• Smoking causes fatal lung cancer.
• Smoking when pregnant harms your baby.
• Protect children: don't make them breathe your smoke.
• Your doctor or your pharmacist can help you stop smoking.
• Smoking is highly addictive, don't start.
• Stopping smoking reduces the risk of fatal heart and lung diseases.
• Smoking can cause a slow and painful death.
• Get help to stop smoking: (telephone/postal address/internet address/consult your doctor/pharmacist).
• Smoking may reduce the blood flow and causes impotence.
• Smoking causes ageing of the skin.
• Smoking can damage the sperm and decreases fertility.
• Smoke contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.

Australia

Since March 2006, all tobacco products imported and manufactured for retail in Australia must include one of seven rotating health warnings (which change every year). Each warning must occupy 30 per cent of the front of the package and 90 per cent of the back of the package, with a graphic appearing on both the front and back.  Australia was also the first nation to require "how to quit" information to be printed on every pack. The warnings are:

• Smoking causes peripheral vascular disease
• Smoking causes emphysema
• Smoking causes mouth and throat cancer
• Smoking clogs your arteries
• Don’t let children breathe your smoke
• Smoking - a leading cause of death
• Quitting will improve your health
• Smoking harms unborn babies
• Smoking causes blindness
• Smoking causes lung cancer
• Smoking causes heart disease
• Smoking doubles your risk of stroke
• Smoking is addictive
• Tobacco smoke is toxic

Tobacco: Health Warnings
Australian Department of Health and Ageing

Japan

The polite "For the sake of your health, please do not smoke too much" was replaced in the 1990s with a warning only slightly stronger:

• Tobacco may be harmful to your health. Avoid excessive smoking.

Chile

Since 2006, cigarette packages are required to have a health warning cover 50 per cent of the front and back of the package, as well as a descriptive message on emissions and constituents on the side of the package. Two warnings, one including a graphic, are rotated on cigarette packages:

• Tobacco kills. If you want to live give up smoking.
• In Chile tobacco kills 16,000 people every year. You could be next.

Health Warning Pictures: Chile, Tobacco Labelling Resource Centre
<http://www.tobaccolabels.ca/labelima/chile>

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Reprinted with permission from Smoke-Free for Life, a smoking prevention curriculum supplement from the Nova Scotia Department of Health, Drug Dependency and Tobacco Control Unit, 1996. Adapted and updated 2002. Updated 2009.