Cigarette packages to drop ‘light,’ ‘mild’

OTTAWA—Canada’s major cigarette manufacturers have reached a deal with the federal Competition Bureau to drop the words “light” and “mild” from their packaging before being ordered to do so, but critics are fuming. The bureau announced yesterday that Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd., Rothmans Benson and Hedges Inc., and JTI-Macdonald Corp. have agreed to accelerate the removal of the words—or variations of the terms—from cigarette packaging. An inquiry into a formal complaint about use of the terms will now be dropped. But non-smoking groups say the deal just speeds up the inevitable and does nothing to stop the companies from using other means to convey the same misleading message that one type of cigarette is less harmful than another. And, they point out, the deal skirts the issue of penalties for years of misleading tobacco advertising and false research suggesting so-called light or mild cigarettes are more healthy than regular brands. Francis Thompson of the Non-Smokers Rights Association—one of 11 complainants in the case—slammed the bureau. “They have abandoned any attempt to deal with the fact that millions of Canadians were effectively defrauded,” he said. He noted Health Canada already was well down the road to implementing regulations to force the descriptors’ withdrawal. Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada also criticized the deal, which they say is contrary to the World Health Organization’s advice against governments entering into voluntary agreements with tobacco firms. “It’s a test of public health law,” spokeswoman Cynthia Callard said. “Will the government . . . allow this voluntary agreement to stand or will it replace it with strong regulations that end all the forms of deception used by the industry?” Callard’s comments came shortly after the Competition Bureau announced the three companies will begin phasing out the descriptors by Dec. 31 and eliminate them by July 31. The bureau said it will ask smaller cigarette companies to follow suit. The move—variations of which already have been implemented in Europe and Australia—affects 79 brands of cigarettes and 18 varieties of fine-cut tobacco. “The astonishing thing about voluntary agreements between the tobacco industry and government is that they never work,” said Neil Collishaw of the physicians group. “They never work for the public purpose; they do work for the tobacco industry’s and I’m afraid this one is no different.” Karen Bodirsky, who speaks for Rothmans Benson and Hedges, said the companies talked with government officials for months on the issue and already have begun removing the descriptors. She dismissed suggestions the companies will use other coercive means to market cigarettes. “I can tell you nothing we are doing to identify our product for retailers and consumers is going to be a surprise to the Competition Bureau.” Canada signed last year’s international Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which included undertakings to force the removal of descriptors such as “light” and “mild” within five years.