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…
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…
A year ago we reported on the scientific progress that had been made since 2018, when the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) issued its conclusions on the Public Health Consequences of E-cigarettes. This post provides a further update on key research findings, offering further evidence for our governments to stop suggesting that “the long-term consequences of…
Most Canadian governments which have banned flavoured e-cigarettes have done so in order to reduce the number of young people who are brought into nicotine use through the use of attractive flavourings. Vaping manufacturers have objected to these measures, and are claiming that flavours “save lives” because they encourage smokers to switch to e-cigarettes. Missing…
The overarching objectives of these recommendations are to protect young people from inducements to use vaping devices by regulating such devices as equivalent to tobacco products, and to encourage smokers who use vaping devices to use them solely to end or reduce their use of all nicotine-containing products. Council of Chief Medical Officers of Health…
This post reports on efforts by Canadian governments to ensure that retailers of vaping products follow provincial and federal laws, and identifies where official and community reports on enforcement action can be found. VAPING Federal enforcement of restrictions on vaping marketing. Since 2019, Health Canada has proactively disclosed reports on its activities to ensure compliance…
In advance of the beginning of Canada’s 44th parliament, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada (PSC) has written the new Minister and Associate Minister of Health to recommend priority actions to reduce tobacco use. The letter can be read here. The health charity urges the ministers to address two key weaknesses in the federal approach to tobacco…
This week Health Canada released the results of its inspections of the instagram accounts of Canadian vaping suppliers. Just over half (53%) of the 304 suppliers failed inspection. The industry fared somewhat better on this test than they did on the previous round of inspections of their retail stores in the summer and fall of 2019. On those occasions, fewer than 1…
What happens when governments announce targets to achieve important public objectives, but then fail to develop adequate plans to achieve them? Or when their plans for achieving these targets are side-swiped by later events? Or swept aside by subsequent administrations? Stewards of the environment have faced these challenges and have developed a system to improve…
Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada welcomes the federal regulatory measures announced today to protect young people and non-smokers from the marketing of highly-addictive and enticingly flavoured vaping products. The new limits on the amount of nicotine that is permitted in vaping liquids will protect many young people from addiction. This measure will be in place…