Cities lead charge on vape bans in absence of federal rules

While Edmonton is now among the ranks of Canadian cities that have banned vaping, federal regulations remain in limbo.

Edmonton’s bylaw barring e-cigarettes everywhere that cigarettes are prohibited came into effect Oct. 20. The only exception are stores where e-cigarettes are sold.

The Alberta capital is the latest municipality to take the bylaw into its own hands in the absence of any federal action on the popular devices.

City councillors in Toronto voted in favour in August of a ban in city workplaces and Calgary city council passed a bylaw in June that immediately banned vaping anywhere but vape retailers.

In Ottawa, puffing on an e-cigarette in prohibited public spaces can net a $5,000 fine. Cities including Saskatoon, Winnipeg, Red Deer, Alta., and B.C.’s Kelowna and Prince George have also enacted bylaws.

Municipalities have led the charge but several provinces have also moved to restrict vaping.

Since May, Nova Scotia has prohibited sales to people under 19 and restricted promotion and sales of the product.

In May, Ontario passed legislation bringing e-cigarettes under the same rules as regular cigarettes, including barring use in smoke-free areas and prohibiting the sale of flavoured vape “juice.” British Columbia has similar legislation and Quebec’s health minister wants to bring vapes under the province’s Tobacco Act.

Federally, e-cigarettes are not authorized for sale in Canada but they are not illegal. A consumer warning was issued in 2009 and vape materials containing nicotine — considered a drug under federal rules — have been seized at the border. Yet, vapes and vape “juice” are widely available, both with and without nicotine.

No federal regulations

The House of Commons standing committee on health released a report in March with 14 recommendations for regulating these products.

The committee suggested Ottawa establish maximum levels for the amount of nicotine that can be contained in the vape juice but it did not recommend banning nicotine altogether. It did recommend banning flavoured vape juice “designed specifically to appeal to youth,” and prohibit sales to anyone under 18.

Health Canada spokesman André Gagnon says the recommendation and regulations are still under review.

David Hammond, one of the authors of a recent report on e-cigarettes for the Propel Centre for Population Health Impact at the University of Waterloo, says that one of the challenges is that e-cigarettes are currently regulated under a different framework as tobacco products.

The parliamentary hearings highlighted the need to regulate them under the same framework as tobacco, he says.

“Health Canada, like other regulatory agencies around the world, has struggled to keep up with the rapidly evolving market for vapourized nicotine products,” Hammond tells Yahoo Canada News. “Essentially, we have a situation where millions of Canadians are using products that have not been approved. My understanding is that they are working on the problem, but time is not on their side. The challenges at the federal level are one reason why municipalities and provinces have moved forward with their own measures.”

‘Very novel products’

The primary argument in favour of “vaping” is that the production doesn’t involve combustion, making it a safer alternative to regular cigarettes.

“Although e-cigarettes are likely to be harmful to health, they are likely to be substantially less harmful than tobacco cigarettes,” says the Propel Centre report.

“However, the long-term health effects of vaping have not been examined and are therefore unknown at this time.”

Ultimately, the impact of the product will be determined by their impact on smoking rates, it says.

Based on data from 2013, the report says nine per cent of all Canadians aged 15 and older have tried vaping — 2.5 million people.

Prevalence is highest among young people with one in five youth aged 15 to 19 and young adults aged 20 to 24 reporting they have tried.

One quarter of those who vaped said they used a liquid containing nicotine. Another one in five were not sure.

“Young non-smokers are also trying e-cigarettes,” the report says.

Among high school students in Ontario, seven per cent of non-smokers reported ever having tried vaping, compared to 28 per cent of youth non-smokers in Quebec.

In general, though, few non-smokers reported use in the previous month. Several studies have suggested that approximately four per cent of non-smoking youth reported past-month use.

Christine Czoli, one of the co-authors of the Propel report, says several groups want the Canadian government to revisit the rules for e-cigarette sales.

The change in government has likely slowed any progress, Czoli says, and so has the lack of evidence about health effects, patterns of use in different age groups and the possibility of the product as a smoking cessation device.

“Due to the fact that e-cigarettes are very novel products, evidence regarding several important questions, particularly over the long-term, is lacking,” she tells Yahoo Canada News.

“This makes developing regulations quite difficult, as it is not entirely clear who will use these products, when they will use them and for what reasons they will use them.”

Before moving ahead, she expects federal health officials will want to review what other countries and jurisdictions have done. And that varies widely.

They are approved for sale in many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom. In New Zealand, they’re approved for use with a prescription.

In Australia and Singapore, they are illegal.

The European Union, meanwhile, allows the sale but requires health warnings on packages, mandatory reporting from manufacturers and importers and advertising restrictions.