British Columbia’s new regulations will help protect children and adults from harmful nicotine marketing

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Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada today welcomed British Columbia’s new regulations to protect young people from tobacco and vaping industry marketing. “Last year Brritish Columbia was the first Canadian jurisdiction to develop a comprehensie strategy to address the youth vaping crisis,” said executive Director Cynthia Callard. “The regulatory measures that were advanced today as part of that...

Five large Canadian public pension plans have said “no” to tobacco investments.

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For most Canadian workers, ten and a half cents on every pay-cheque dollar is deducted as a contribution to our national public pension program. Workers in Quebec contribute to the Quebec Pension Plan, and their contributions are invested by the Caisse de Dépot et placement du Québec (the Caisse). In all other provinces, workers must contribute...

A Canada Day holiday – and the start date for several tobacco control regulations.

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Health Authorities have a tendency to use the first days of January and July as the moment when regulations come into force. And so it is that this week a number of changes to the tobacco and vaping regulations are taking effect. Links to more detailed fact sheets are at the bottom of this post. Federal...

Smoking rates have fallen — but maybe not for the reason you think.

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Last week Statistics Canada made available the Public Use Microdata from the Canadian Community Health Survey conducted in 2017 and 2018.  The gift of a 1000 variables! The Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS) is the doyen of Statistics Canada’s health surveillance system. For 2 decades, government pollsters have used this survey to find explore the health and...

Banning menthol and other flavourings in cigarettes

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“Menthol use is likely associated with increased smoking initiation by youth and young adults. Further, the data indicate that menthol in cigarettes is likely associated with greater addiction. Menthol smokers show greater signs of nicotine dependence and are less likely to successfully quit smoking. These findings, combined with the evidence indicating that menthol’s cooling and...

The PATH that leads to understanding the vaping epidemic

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Finding the PATH Since 2013, there has been a remarkable survey operating in the United States that has deepened our understanding of tobacco and e-cigarettes use and consequences. It is the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Survey (PATH) – a longitudinal, nationally representative survey of 46000 Americans. This survey generates information on tobacco and e-cigarette use...

Nova Scotia and Ontario move to curb high-nicotine vaping products

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While the world and public health systems have been gripped with managing COVID-19, a number of regulatory changes have nonetheless been put in place with respect to vaping products. This post provides an update on some noteworthy Canadian policy decisions in 2020. Dialing down the nicotine: Last Tuesday, Nova Scotia adopted regulations “to add restrictions respecting nicotine potency...

New vaping promotions expose challenges to regulators.

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Over the past couple of weeks, BAT (owner of Nicoventures and Imperial Tobacco Canada) has launched new promotions in Canada for its vaping products. This campaign is part of a global re-branding initiative the company shared with investors in March. This campaign can be seen as a test run of the federal government’s plans for...

Calculating the profits of tobacco companies in Canada

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How much do tobacco companies make in Canada?  Answering that question became more difficult about a decade ago, after all three of the traditional tobacco companies (BAT-Imperial Tobacco Canada, PMI-Rothmans, Benson and Hedges, and JTI-Macdonald) became fully-owned subsidiaries of multinationals and the fourth (Grand River Enterprises) remained a privately held operation. Over the past year,...

Taxing Vaping Products

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E-cigarette taxes: A global snapshot Earlier this month, we reported on taxes on cigarettes in Canada, and also on heat-not-burn tobacco sticks.* This post reviews Canadian tax measures on e-cigarettes (vaping products), and compares with those in other jurisdictions. Vaping taxes in Canada: Currently, the federal government does not impose taxes on e-cigarettes, other than the GST...

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