Canada rolling out individual cigarette warnings. Will it curb smoking?

The wording on every cigarette ranges from warnings about harming children and damaging organs to causing impotence and leukemia.

A fresh set of Health Canada regulations that require warning labels on individual cigarettes is set to come into effect Tuesday.

The move, announced earlier this year, makes Canada the first country in the world to take that step in the ongoing effort to help smokers kick the habit and deter potential puffers from picking it up.

The wording on every cigarette, written in English and French on the paper around the filter, ranges from warnings about harming children and damaging organs to causing impotence and leukemia. “Poison in every puff,” cautions one.

The labels will dissuade teens leaning toward taking up the habit and push nicotine-dependent parents looking to fight it, predicted Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society.

“For youth who experiment by ‘borrowing’ a cigarette from a friend, it’s going to mean they will see the cigarettes _ even if they may not see the package _ where the warnings appear,” he said in a telephone interview. “It’s going to prompt discussion, including by smokers during smoke breaks: ‘What warning have you got today?’

“Often it’s kids who are urging their parents to quit, and this provides new information and messaging,” Cunningham said.

Dozens of studies in Canada and elsewhere show the effectiveness of printing warnings on each cigarette, he noted.

Tobacco use continues to be one of Canada’s most significant public health problems and is the country’s leading preventable cause of disease and premature death, then-health minister Jean-Yves Duclos said in a May 31 statement announcing the new warning labels.