What to know
- Health organizations, including Heart & Stroke, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Nurses Association and the Canadian Pharmacists Association, are calling for federal restrictions on flavoured vaping products.
- The proposed regulations were first introduced in 2021 and would limit permitted flavours and restrict certain ingredients, including sugars and sweeteners.
- Statistics Canada data from the 2023–2024 school year show that 27 per cent of Grade 12 students and 22 per cent of Grade 11 students reported vaping.
- Advocates say flavours can make vaping more appealing to young people and are calling on the federal government to advance the proposed rules.
A group of leading health organizations is urging the federal government to move forward on regulations to restrict e-cigarette flavours, which advocates say is one of the main drivers behind teen vaping.
During a news conference on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, representatives from several health organizations, including Heart & Stroke, Canadian Cancer Society, Canadian Nurses Association and Canadian Pharmacists Association, and more, called on Prime Minister Mark Carney and Minister of Health Marjorie Michel to adopt national restrictions on vape flavours.
The group is urging the government to move forward with a proposed amendment to the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (Flavours) and the proposed Standards for Vaping Products’ Sensory Attributes Regulations, which were initially proposed in 2021.
The measure would gradually regulate flavours in e-cigarette products, including further restricting the promotion of flavours in tobacco products to tobacco itself, mint, menthol and mint/menthol and prohibiting sugars and sweeteners and most flavouring ingredients in these products.
“We’ve already waited five years… Within those five years, many young people have started vaping, and they have become addicted to nicotine,” Foram Patel, a Senior Policy Specialist at Heart and Stroke Foundation, told Now Toronto on Wednesday.
“We’re asking them to at least protect the next generation of young people by banning flavours.”
Why are experts advocating for a flavour ban?
According to the health organizations, since restrictions on the promotion of tobacco products and anti-smoking campaigns were introduced, smoking rates had significantly reduced among young people in previous years.
However, since e-cigarettes were legalized in Canada in 2018, vaping rates have skyrocketed among teens, with Statistics Canada data showing that 27 per cent of Grade 12 students and 22 of Grade 11 students vape. Young people who vape were also found to be three times more likely to smoke than those who don’t vape.
According to Patel, several pediatricians, pharmacists, nurses, and health professionals across Canada have also come to a consensus that flavours can soften youth’s perception on the health risks associated with vaping, reduce throat irritation and mask the harms of nicotine, enticing more young people to vape.
“We need to do something about it urgently,” Patel said.
“Health harms are something that we’ve built a consensus on now. We have clear evidence that vaping is doing a lot of harm to our young people, and flavours are the key reason why they’re starting [to vape] in the first place. So, a way for us to protect young people and to have a healthier population is to ban flavours in vaping products.”
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Advocate says lobbyists may be behind delays
Although a clear explanation of what could be behind the five-year delay on flavoured vapes restrictions has not been provided, Patel says extensive lobbying from the tobacco industry may be behind it.
“They’re planting seeds of doubt among policymakers, and for the longest time, they have been telling the government that e-cigarettes are in fact a smoking cessation tool, and that flavours are going to help people quit smoking,” she told Now Toronto.
“In reality, since we’ve introduced vapes, we haven’t seen declines in smoking rates at the population level.”
Given evidence shown by experts and advocates, organizations are now hoping their call will encourage the government to move forward on the process.
Although six provinces and territories, including British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Nunavut, and Quebec, have implemented their own local restrictions on flavours in tobacco products, experts say a federal approach could prevent gaps.
“Now the federal government has received consensus from health professionals and also health advocacy organizations. We have clear research evidence, and the harms are already showing up in our young people. It’s really time to look at the evidence and make decisions based on those, which do indicate banning flavours as soon as possible,” Patel added.
