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This month Health Canada released the results of the most recent Canadian Student, Alcohol and Tobacco Survey, with data collected in selected schools across Canada (except New Brunswick) during the 2021-2022 school year. This is the most recent version of the school-based smoking and drug survey which has been conducted periodically since 1994. In recent...
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One of the few agreements about e-cigarettes is that there is still no consensus about the role they play in helping smokers quit. This post reports on the conflicting (and missing) evidence on the effects of using e-cigarettes for smoking cessation. A subsequent post will look at the conflicting (and missing) approaches to promoting e-cigarettes...
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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...
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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...
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For millenia the New Year has brought with it an expectation of personal improvement, and for many smokers that means trying (often again!) to quit smoking. This post looks at newly-available data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) which sheds some light on the quitting behaviour of Canadian smokers. (The charts shown below and the data...
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Over the last week, two major surveys on smoking and vaping commissioned by Health Canada were disclosed. Both were conducted by Environics Research and managed under the framework of Government of Canada Public Opinion Research. Reports on these surveys are available from the Library of Canada at the following links: Smokers Panel Baseline Survey 2022...
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Last week, the UK based health charity, Cochrane, released its sixth report on the evidence on the use of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation. This post reflects on how this and other Cochrane conclusions could serve Canadian efforts to reduce smoking at the population and individual levels. In brief: 1) Cochrane establishes that in clinical trials, E-cigarettes fail...
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Mandatory Report More Than Five Months Overdue (Ottawa – November 14, 2022) Today a national health charity applied for a Federal Court order directing Health Canada to complete its overdue review of the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act and to present the results to Parliament. “The law is crystal clear” said Dr. Atul Kapur, president...
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This post provides updated information on cigarette sales and tobacco taxes in Canada. Links to Fact sheets with the data reflected in the figures below are provided at the bottom of the post. 1) Total tobacco tax revenues in Canada continue to fall – and more quickly than predicted by tax officials. Overall, tobacco tax revenues...
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Last week BAT/Imperial Tobacco Canada began selling the disposable vaping device Vuse Go in Canada. From the advertising copy on its website, it appears that this new product is being used to recruit new users: “Whether you are new to vaping, want to try some new flavours without committing, or simply aren’t sure which device is right...
