Advertisement

Saskatoon city council latest to consider butting out e-cigarettes

Saskatoon city council latest to consider butting out e-cigarettes

Saskatoon city council will vote later this month on whether to become the latest jurisdiction to ban electronic cigarettes.

The municipal planning committee made a unanimous recommendation to council to bring the popular “vaping” devices under its tobacco control bylaws, barring their use in all city buildings as well as bars and restaurants.

“We’ve even had complaints about people lighting up e-cigarettes on buses,” says Coun. Pat Lorje, who voted for the bylaw on the planning committee and hopes for unanimous support when council votes Aug. 20.

“I don’t care what it is you’re smoking in the e-cigarette — I don’t care if it’s a fruit-flavoured concoction or if it’s tobacco or marijuana or what — smoking is behaviour that should not be occurring in public and certainly not around children.”

E-cigarettes have rapidly grown in popularity in recent years.

The tube contains batteries that heat a chamber holding liquid, turning it into a vapour to be inhaled. While nicotine products for e-cigarettes are not approved by Health Canada, they are readily available across the country.

Flavourings are also added, such as vanilla or candy, which critics say is meant specifically to appeal to young people. There are also concerns that the e-cigarettes can be modified to vaporize marijuana.

A relatively new device, research on the benefits and risks is scant and divided.

“That is still something that is a matter of debate,” says Geoffrey Fong, a professor at the University of Waterloo’s school of public health and health systems and founder of the International Tobacco Control Policy Evaluation Project.

For some tobacco control advocates, the popularity of “vaping” among teens outweighs the scant success of the product in helping smokers quit.

Fong, though, says government must balance the potential benefits as a harm-reduction tool for smokers with the possible risks that people who would not smoke will try e-cigarettes and move onto smoking.

“Cigarettes are the most harmful consumer product ever created. Cigarettes kill one-half to two-thirds of their regular users. No consumer product comes even close to that,” he tells Yahoo Canada News.

“Given the fact that nothing is deadlier than cigarettes, the promise of e-cigarettes is very strong because here is a product that, if used with nicotine, delivers nicotine and does so in a way that won’t kill you. It doesn’t mean it’s absolutely safe; it just means that in comparison to cigarettes it’s much safer.”

In the absence of federal regulation, several cities and provinces have stepped in with rules of their own.

Beginning in June, Nova Scotia banned “vaping” in indoor spaces and restricted the sale of e-cigarettes to youths.

In May, Ontario passed the Making Healthier Choices Act that brings e-cigarettes under the same rules as regular cigarettes: they can’t be sold to anyone under 19 years old, their promotion and displays are regulated and their use is banned in smoke-free areas. The bill also bans the sale of vaping flavours.

British Columbia has similar legislation and Quebec has tabled its own, following the lead of cities like Vancouver, Winnipeg, Red Deer and Edmonton.

But Fong says the federal government needs to address the regulatory limbo of e-cigarettes that contain nicotine.

The promise and popularity of e-cigarettes depend on their use as a harm-reduction measure for smokers.

“All these provinces they’re regulating things like promotion, point of sale, whether or not they’re incorporated into smoke-free laws that exist already… but really until there is a decision made on the issue of nicotine within e-cigarettes, all of these are secondary to the big issue of is nicotine going to be officially allowed?” Fong says.

A report by the parliamentary standing committee on health in March recommended regulation, though no ban on nicotine.

“Insufficient evidence exists to reach a clear conclusion with respect to health risks or benefits,” it says.

The committee recommended federal rules including restricting sales to youths and prohibiting the use of flavourings.

But the committee specifically noted the harm-reduction possibilities for smokers and recommends Health Canada establish limits for how much nicotine e-cig liquids can contain.

“Virtually all witnesses identified the apparent reduced harm to the users of electronic cigarettes containing nicotine compared to the users of combustible tobacco cigarettes,” it says.

It’s a complex issue and more research is needed, Fong says.

“But I think the time for action should be soon.”