Ottawa is going to go ahead with a ban on the terms "light" and "mild" on Canadian cigarette packets, CBC News reported on Friday. 

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INDEPTH: Smoking

The Liberals tried to do the same thing, but never pushed the legislation through Parliament.  The Conservatives, however, will introduce the changes this coming fall.  

Health Canada, a federal government department, says the use of the terms light and mild on cigarette packaging is "misleading." An official with the department says new regulations banning use of the terms will likely be introduced this fall.

Rob Cunningham of the Canadian Cancer Society says it's about time.

"It has been a disappointment for national health organizations that proposals in this regard have taken years and we have not yet seen a regulation. So the prospects of a regulation actually happening are encouraging," said Cunningham. 

Health Canada first issued a consumer warning in 1999, saying tests show light cigarettes deliver the same amount of dangerous chemicals to smokers as regular cigarettes and are no less dangerous. Ottawa first took steps to stop tobacco companies from describing their products as light or mild in 2001, but eventually backed down.

Catherine Doyle, spokesperson for Imperial Tobacco, says her company has not yet been notified the new rule is coming.  But, she says, Imperial was ready to drop the terms in 2001 and is willing to do so now.

"We are willing to eliminate the light and mild descriptors on our cigarettes, just as long as there is a system in place to allow adult smokers to navigate the strengths and different brands of our products." 

Doyle says the use of the words only refers to a cigarette's taste and is not meant to gauge health risk. 

A Health Canada survey shows fewer than 20 per cent of people who smoke light cigarettes actually believe they are less harmful, but Cunningham says that translates into big numbers.

"With 47,000 Canadians who die each year because of smoking, every one per cent reduction is huge in terms of a public health impact."

Cunningham says while his group supports these proposed changes, it is still pushing for plain packages for all tobacco products. 

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