OTTAWA - Smokers who get their fix from Canadian tobacco retailers can no longer avoid Ottawa's latest in-your-face effort to convince them to quit.
Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq says as of today, packages of cigarettes and little cigars sold in Canada must carry large, dramatic, new anti-smoking images and messages.
The new labelling, which covers 75 per cent of cigarette packages, includes graphic pictures of a cancer-infected mouth and of an emaciated, cancer-stricken Barb Tarbox.
Tarbox was an anti-smoking activist before dying of lung cancer at the age of 42, and her story - among others - is featured in the new packaging.
Statistics Canada says that in 2011, 1 in 5 Canadians aged 12 and older - nearly 5.8 million people - smoked on an occasional or a daily basis, down from 25.9 per cent in 2001.
A Canada-wide "quitline" and website address also figure prominently on the new packs, which Aglukkaq says are part of an ongoing federal effort to inform Canadians, particularly young people, about the perils of tobacco use.
© The Canadian Press, 2012