Press Release May 16, 2019
ENFORCE
THE LAW!: Physicians for a
Smoke-Free Canada (PSC) is calling on Health Canada to
strengthen its enforcement of federal health law and to
put a stop to youth-appealing product designs and
misleading, lifestyle, and testimonial advertisements
for vaping products. “Almost a year
has passed since Parliament legalized the sale of
nicotine vaping products,” explained Neil Collishaw,
PSC’s research director. “As predicted, the adoption of
the new Tobacco
and Vaping Products Act (TVPA) opened the door to
multinational tobacco companies and resulted in
aggressive marketing campaigns aimed at recruiting new
users to these addictive products. Unfortunately, Health
Canada is not using the authorities given to it by
Parliament to ensure that these advertisements stay
within the promotional constraints set down in the law.” Although the
federal government is not collecting data on youth
vaping until 2020, surveys conducted by independent
researchers have confirmed the experience of parents and
educators that youth vaping rates increased dramatically
after the nicotine market was legalized in May 2018. A
key driver of this increase is believed to be the
widespread marketing of small vaping devices (like Juul,
Vype and Logic). “Three months ago, Health Canada acknowledged the problem of increased youth vaping, and proposed to introduce further restrictions on where vaping ads could be displayed,” recalled Mr. Collishaw. In its recent forward regulatory plan, however, the department estimates that these regulations will take at least 18 months to put in place. “Rather than
deferring action until there are new regulations to
restrict where
vaping products can be advertised, we are asking the
department to ensure the law is obeyed with respect to
how vaping
products can be advertised,” said Mr. Collishaw. The group has identified four core areas where new statutory restrictions on vaping advertisements are not being complied with Youth appealing designs. Misleading advertising Lifestyle advertisements Testimonial advertisements in exchange for
gifts or money Mr. Collishaw
acknowledged that taking these actions will require
Health Canada to be more willing to prosecute than it
has previously been. “There is a tendency of health
regulators to rely on legislative amendments rather than
courts to clarify manufacturers’ duties under the law,”
he said. “The result, unfortunately, is to put
legislators in a constant game of catch-up with Big
Tobacco. With the current crisis in youth vaping, it’s
time to end this game.” PSC is also
calling for the TVPA to be substantially strengthened
with comprehensive restrictions on the promotion of
vaping products. It is calling on all federal political
parties to ensure that fixing the TVPA is a legislative
priority when a new parliament opens next fall. “Until a more
comprehensive ban on vaping ads is in place, Health
Canada can nonetheless ensure that there is an end to
misleading, lifestyle and testimonial ads, and that
products with high youth appeal are removed from the
market.” “Health Canada
has a statutory obligation to protect the health of
Canadians. It has a duty to enforce this law.” Backgrounder: Year 1 analysis of compliance of vaping advertisements with the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act. For further information: Neil Collishaw, Research Director, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada. 613 297 3590
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