Canada’s Health Minister breaks new ground to regulate nicotine pouches

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Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada joined other health agencies and concerned Canadians in applauding the Health Minister for ordering Imperial Tobacco (British American Tobacco) to change the way it markets nicotine pouches in Canada “The measures announced today will put these novel nicotine products where they belong: behind the pharmacist’s counter,” said executive director Cynthia...

World No Tobacco Day 2024: Ministers’ silence on e-cig flavour regulations raises concerns the policy has been scrapped

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MONTREAL, OTTAWA and EDMONTON.  The Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control, Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada and Action on Smoking & Health (ASH Canada) are disappointed by the joint statement issued on World No Tobacco Day (WNTD) by the Minister of Health, the Hon. Mark Holland, and the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, the Hon. Ya’ara Saks. The ministers’ silence on key issues has...

The urgent need for a new nicotine regulatory framework

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This week (November 17th) is the deadline for contributions to Health Canada’s legislative review of the federal tobacco law. The Minister is required by law to table a biennial report on the “provisions and operations” of the law no later that May 23, 2024. This post reports on the key recommendations contained in our response to...

Health Canada makes it legal for flavoured nicotine products from Imperial Tobacco to be sold to children

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Health organizations call on federal government to take immediate action Ottawa, November 14, 2023 – Health Canada has approved the sale of flavoured nicotine pouches by Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. in such a way that the products can be legally sold to children of any age. Moreover, Imperial Tobacco can promote these products on TV or...

Health Canada’s vaping flavour ban is still missing in action.

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It’s time to admit it is dead. In June 2021 Health Canada stated its intention to reduce youth vaping by removing flavourings from vaping liquids, and published draft regulations to that effect. Predictably, the release of the draft regulations was followed with noisy and prolonged protests and intensive lobbying by those in the business of selling these...

National Non Smoking Week through the rear-view mirror

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National Non-Smoking Week is 46 years old this month. This is an occasion to reflect on how much has – and has not – changed over the past half century. This post looks at parallels in government tobbacco policy in 1977 and 2023, and what lessons we might take from this history. For many Canadians...

Health Canada’s about-face on reporting requirements for the vaping industry is a bad sign for public health

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PRESS RELEASE.  July 26, 2022 Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada (PSC) is concerned that Health Canada’s recently circulated draft regulations to require  vaping product manufacturers to provide the department with information on its products and activities reflect a departmental priority for the concerns of business over the public health benefit of better information on what...

Health Canada trims its tobacco control sails

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In April 2021, two more documents were released by Health Canada which set out how the department plans to address the health consequences of tobacco use and vaping. The first is Health Canada’s Forward Regulatory Plan for 2022-2024, and the second is the internal evaluation of Health Canada’s activities, including management’s response to the recommendations made by...

The First Four Years: The legislative review of the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act.

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May 23, 2022 marks four years since Royal Assent was given to the legislation that turned the Tobacco Act into the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act. On that day, the Minister of Health is obliged by law to submit to both the Senate and the House of Commons a report on the “review of the provisions and operation of this...

‘Clear the Smoke’: Imperial Tobacco launches an illegal health-reassurance ad campaign

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Last week Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. launched a new campaign using the industry’s decades’ old strategy of invoking medical experts as pitch-men for their products. This post documents how this campaign (a)  continues the industry’s historic marketing practices, (b) is a transgression of federal law and (c) is nonetheless likely to be permitted to continue.  DEJA VU ALL...

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