Smoking Cessation

"Some people have suggested the idea of putting a warning on individual cigarettes and using what we call sliding shell."
"I have to tell you these ideas are being studied and I also have to tell you I really like them. They are quite bold."
"When I look at the rates of tobacco use, we have certainly come a long ways[sic], but I personally believe a lot of work needs to be done in this area [persuading smokers to cease imperilling their health]."
"We want to make sure that programs are developed for Indigenous communities by Indigenous communities [with typically high rates of tobacco consumption]."
Federal Health Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor, Ottawa

"The tobacco companies place the brand name and logos on the cigarette themselves, it's a very good way to communicate with consumers."
"Under plain packaging, they will no longer be able to have that [straight-up advertising] so it is a great idea to have a health warning."
"[It could be as simple as a word like] 'cancer' [or] 'emphysema' [on a cigarette]."
"There are 27 billion cigarettes sold [every year] in Canada. If we can have a health warning on each of those, it's going to inform consumers, it's going to create public discussion, it's going to make the product less appealing and it'll help fight contraband because it will have a unique marking on cigarettes, legitimately sold in Canada."
Rob Cunningham, spokesman, Canadian Cancer Society

AP Photo/Nati Harnik,

"How a committee can pass a tobacco bill without hearing from a tobacco company that has close to 50-per-cent market share is beyond us."
"Plain packaging is perhaps the greatest gift the government can give to the illegal operators."
"Plain packaging forces the legal industry to make our products look like illegal ones."
Eric Gagon, spokesman, Imperial Tobacco 

Cancer, and particularly lung cancer, directly linked to tobacco use, can be reduced by influencing people who smoke to realize that their habit is self-destructive. While tobacco use is not the only determinate for cancer onset, it is the most obviously responsible one. Treatment of patients with emphysema  and cancer related to smoking takes up a large part of the Canadian universal health system, a costly exercise in fear and frustration for those afflicted and a use of medicine that could be reduced because it is environmentally caused through a harmful substance and habitual use.

In heart clinics where patients with such issues are treated, posters urging people not to smoke, for a healthier lifestyle, longevity and enjoyment of life make the case for smoking cessation. Hospitals run programs for smokers attempting to quit their habit. Tobacco use deleteriously affects the heart as well as other organs of the body. Four million Canadians out of a population of 36 million remain smokers, the result of which, an estimated 45,000 people die each year as a direct cause of smoking.
Cancer, lung disease, heart disease, the most dread medical conditions arise through tobacco addiction.

"The Quit Smoking Program (QSP) is a nurse-led clinic that provides you with one-on-one support during your attempt to quit. The program provides a non-judgmental and supportive environment where a “quit plan” is tailored to meet your individual needs. Anyone may self-refer to the program, or be referred by a healthcare provider. The cost is covered by OHIP."
University of Ottawa Heart Institute

Health Canada is currently examining a proposed measure to dis-enhance the packaging of tobacco products. Not an entirely new idea by any means, but one that builds on past packaging warnings of the outcome of tobacco use on human health. On the agenda is a stark move to have tobacco manufacturers who pall at the very idea, entomb their product in absolutely plain packaging. Once Bill S-5 designed to make it a legal reality is given royal assent, new packaging regulations for tobacco products will prohibit promotional information, branding and logos.

Tobacco, apart from posing as a health threat to those who smoke, along with other non-smokers who are in close proximity constantly to smokers, causes other kinds of accidents that impact on people's lives. Cigarettes improperly snuffed out, left to smoulder, can flare up and cause house fires. Fires that can themselves be lethal, and at the very least, lead to loss of property and possessions. Because smoking is more prevalent among the least educated and the poor, cigarette-caused fires have the potential to burn up multiple dwellings at a time, leaving large numbers of people homeless.

Study finds link between vaping now and smoking later in life; still from video

The strategy the Health Department is now pursuing is meant to reduce the current rate of smoking in the public from its 15 percent status to five percent or less with the help of the new legislation. Funding is to be provided for investments to protect youth, increase scientific research, fund non-governmental organizations and to make inroads in curbing smoking in Indigenous communities where smoking rates are known to be much higher than among the general population.

"Smoking cessation is a health priority for the University of Ottawa Health Services Family Health Team.  In 2009, our providers adopted the Ottawa Model for Smoking Cessation (OMSC) in Primary Care. It focuses on helping patients quit smoking long term by providing counselling and cessation medications. The program helps patients identify their smoking status, provides advice on strategies to quit smoking; and provides assistance with quitting. The program includes collaboration with the Heart Institute to provide follow-up counselling to help patients remain smoke-free."
University of Ottawa, Smoking Cessation Program