The Minister of Mental Health and Addictions has announced that the federal government will soon ban most e-cigarette flavors across Canada. It’s been more than three years since Ottawa first promised to introduce restrictions.
“We made a commitment from the beginning to limit flavors, and we haven’t wavered from that,” Yaara Sachs told CBC News last week.
“We’re planning to roll this out soon. We don’t expect this to take that long,” she said, without specifying a timeline.
The promise of the saxophone follows Coalition of anti-tobacco health groups holds press conference They held a rally in Ottawa earlier this month calling on Sachs to immediately introduce the ban or resign.
They accused her of failing to finalize regulations this spring and bowing to pressure from the e-cigarette industry. This was according to the federal government’s plan.
Back in June 2021, Health Canada stated that “the number of youth vaping in Canada is rapidly increasing.” Pledged to limit e-cig flavors Mint, menthol, even cigarettes.
At the time, Health Canada pointed to research showing that young people are more likely to take up e-cigarettes with fruity and sweet flavors, saying, “The availability of a variety of desirable flavors is contributing to the increase in e-cigarette use among young people.” It seems likely that he did.”
Three years after that warning, Canada is now One of the countries with the highest rate of e-cigarettes among teenagers in the world; Statistics Canada report Almost half of all young people have tried e-cigarettes. According to the latest Canadian Tobacco and Nicotine Survey, most new e-cigarette users (86%) had never smoked a cigarette before.
“We know that young people are currently being exposed to e-cigarettes first,” Sachs said.
While Ottawa has been consulting on the regulations for the past three years, six provinces and territories have introduced their own flavor bans: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, P.E.I., Northwest Territories, Nunavut and Quebec. .
Sachs said the delay in national regulations is because Health Canada wants to learn from Quebec’s experience. The state banned the flavor a year ago.
“We’ve seen… in jurisdictions like Quebec, flavor bans have led to accessible illicit markets,” she said. “So as we move forward with this, we want to make sure we get it right.”
She said the federal government wants to make sure regulations are enforceable and don’t inadvertently encourage underground sales of flavored e-cigarettes.
“Let me be clear: we cannot walk slowly on this,” Sachs said. “The question is: What lessons can we learn now?”
But Florie Doukas, co-director of the Quebec Tobacco Control Federation, said the rise of an illicit market in Quebec is why a national flavor ban is needed now.
Customers in Quebec can now easily order Health Canada-approved flavored e-cigarette products from retailers operating outside the province, where they are not prohibited.
“The argument for delaying regulation because of state problems is pretty convincing because the federal framework has made it very easy for industry to circumvent these state regulations.” said Doukas.
Doukas said the nicotine and e-cigarette industry is moving quickly to find loopholes in new regulations, but that shouldn’t be a reason for the federal government to wait this long.
“We have been dealing with an industry that has been successful in delaying and delaying these regulations,” Doukas said.
The e-cigarette industry held its own press conference in Ottawa last week, urging Saks not to ban the flavor.
Sam Tam, president of the Canadian VAPE Association, said adult smokers rely on vaping as a less harmful option than cigarettes, and appealing flavors make the switch easier.
“A blanket ban on flavors does absolutely nothing to protect Canadians, especially young people,” he said.
Sachs has so far been relatively quiet about Ottawa’s plans to introduce a flavor ban. Meanwhile, Health Minister Mark Holland has been an outspoken critic of nicotine pouches. Banned the sale of pouches Fruity flavors are created within a year of being on store shelves.
Sachs said the fact that e-cigarettes have been around for so long makes regulation difficult.
” [nicotine pouch] “The market is a new market that Dutch ministers were able to nibble on before it became popular,” Sachs said, adding, “vaping products have been around for quite some time. We’ve also seen changes and changes in the market. Ta.
“I’m stuck with this problem. I want to resolve this problem as soon as possible.”