Smoking

Antitobacco bill shot down in Commons

An innovative plan to use a levy to pay for smoking education and prevention programs was stubbed out in the House of Commons. Gilbert Parent, the speaker, ruled in December 1998 that Bill S-13 was inadmissible because the 50-cent charge it would have added to every carton of cigarettes constitutes a tax and not a levy. Tax bills must originate in the House of Commons and not in the Senate, where Senator Colin Kenny first introduced his bill.

Kenny urged the government to pick up his cause and do more to reduce the growing number of Canadian teens who are starting to smoke. Kenny modelled his bill on similar programs in the US. In Massachusetts and California, for example, dedicated funds from tobacco sales help pay for tobacco education and prevention programs. He thinks Canada has an abysmal record on youth smoking, in part because it spends only 33 cents per capita on education programs for young people. Kenny said it is not surprising that Canada's youth smoking rate is approximately 30%. California's rate sits at around 12%. [CMA News 1999;9(1):4]

CMA adds voice to global no-smoking message

The CMA marked World No-Tobacco Day at the end of May by joining the World Health Organization in sending a global message urging smokers to kick the tobacco habit. In recognition of how hard it is to quit smoking, the CMA also urged the Canadian government to support smoking-cessation strategies as part of its tobacco-control strategy. [CMA News 1999;9(7):1]

Government in bed with tobacco industry

The federal government has reneged on its 1994 promise for "the largest antismoking campaign this country has ever seen." Despite annual tobacco tax revenues of more than $2 billion, the government spent only $10 million on tobacco control in 1997. One reports a "tobacco epidemic" among women, whose mortality rate from lung cancer has more than tripled since 1969. [CMAJ 1999;160(1):61-2]

National Non-Smoking Week

There was a flurry of antitobacco activity on the part of the federal government during National Non-Smoking Week, but the CMA still wondered when funds from Ottawa's $100-million Tobacco Control Initiative will be released.

During the week of Jan. 18-24, 1999, Health Minister Allan Rock spoke long and loud about tobacco, and the centrepiece of this flurry was the announcement of new regulatory proposals on tobacco package labelling and the creation of a "hard-hitting" antismoking media campaign. [CMA News 1999;9(2):1]

Occupations linked to smoking

Workers' smoking patterns vary significantly by occupation and times worked according to data from Statistics Canada's 1994/95 National Population Health Survey. Although 28% of full-time workers smoke daily, they are more likely to smoke if they work irregular hours or shifts involving weekends (29%), compared with workers who have a regular weekday schedule (24%). Almost half (48%) of those who described their main activity as "looking for work" smoked daily. The prevalence of smoking was highest among male-dominated, outdoor, blue-collar occupations such as construction, transportation and mining, which had a combined rate of 43%. White-collar workers' rate was significantly lower (18%). CMAJ 1999; 160(5):630