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Excerpts from: Canada to Require Grotesque New Tobacco Labels

 By Randall Palmer, Reuters [06/28/00]

 OTTAWA (Reuters) - Smokers in Canada are to be confronted with grotesque depictions
 of cancerous tumors, sexual impotence or other afflictions under tobacco packaging
 regulations the government says are the toughest in the world.

 Health Minister Allan Rock said on Wednesday the regulations requiring graphic health
 warnings, which he proposed in January, have now become law and will take effect for most
 tobacco products next January.

 ``Canada is the first country in the world to implement such strong labeling and reporting
 measures,'' a statement from his office said.

 Another of the 16 different warnings features a drooping cigarette next to the warning:
 ``Cigarettes may cause sexual impotence due to decreased blood flow to the penis. This can
 prevent you from having an erection.''

 Cigarettes sold in Canada already carry warnings but smaller and on a voluntary basis
 because of a 1995 Supreme Court ruling.

Bills to implement measures similar to Canada's have been held up in the U.S. Congress.

 ``Canada has set an example that we need to follow in order to protect the health of millions
 of American citizens,'' Senator Frank Lautenberg, a co-sponsor of one bill, said in a
 statement in Washington.

 ``It's time for Congress to stop letting the tobacco lobby's money dictate national policy on
 what amounts to a serious public health hazard.''