Statement on the second anniversary of the federal Tobacco and Vaping Products Act
"After two years, it is clear that Canada’s vaping law is a failure.”
A revised law is needed to flatten the curve on this new wave of nicotine addiction.
(Ottawa - Montreal - Edmonton) – On the second anniversary of the federal Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (TVPA) coming into force, tobacco control organizations are calling on the Health Minister and other Parliamentarians to acknowledge the dangerous flaws in the law and to act faster to strengthen national controls on the vaping market.
“Government officials said they would balance the need to protect young people from nicotine addiction against their desire to increase smokers’ access to vaping products. It is clear that they got that balance wrong,” said Neil Collishaw of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada. “Tens of thousands of young Canadians have been harmed by this law, with very little evidence of any benefit to the health of adult smokers.”
“The federal vaping law has not protected young people from tobacco industry marketing,” said Flory Doucas of the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control. “It has allowed vaping products to be sold in tens of thousands of convenience stores and gas stations, it has allowed them to be sold in exotic flavours, it has allowed them to be designed to be hidden from parents and teachers, it has allowed them to be made with the highest levels of fast-acting nicotine and it has allowed them to be sold at dirt-cheap prices.”