Canada Bans All Flavors Even American Blend

John Rolfe — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 15:05:42 +0000

American Blend cigarettes like Marlboro are now banned in Canada so the Philip Morris International subsidiary Rothmans, Benson & Hedges is now able to only exports its AB products. Canada’s law banning the manufacture, importation and sale of flavored cigarettes and small cigars, except those with menthol, and prohibiting tobacco product advertising in newspapers and magazines, took effect on October 8th, despite criticism from the tobacco industry and lawmakers in US tobacco-growing States that the measure was too broad and would unfairly restrict the import of US-grown burley leaf since most of it is exported as licorice-cased blended strip ready for use along with other cocoa and vanilla flavored leaf. Anti-smoking groups said the criticism was unfounded since Canada did not import any US-grown burley leaf in 2007 and 2008, and “American-blend” cigarettes make up less than 1% of the Canadian cigarette market. The anti-smoking groups also said fruit-flavored cigarettes and small cigars were marketed like candy to lure young smokers. The law had support from both government and opposition lawmakers (Reuters 10/8).

What makes this particularly interesting is that it now appears that at the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control meeting taking place now in Jordan, the TobReg committee, which is tasked with making recommendations about flavors in cigarettes, is apparently seriously looking at the possibility of recommending the elimination of all flavors – not just the characterizing flavors such as cherry, lemon etc.

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Canada Bans All Flavors Even American Blend