Group pushes Ottawa to ban flavoured vapes
Healthcare professionals and activists are calling for a full federal ban on flavoured vaping to protect youth, though they admit part of the problem lies in the online and contraband market.
Author: Clayton DeMaine
Activists from anti-smoking and tobacco organizations, along with a doctor from the University of Ottawa, are urging federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel to ban flavoured vaping products, despite recent Health Canada reports suggesting that more than 20 per cent of people who quit smoking in 2024 used vapes.
At a joint press conference in Ottawa on Friday, anti-smoking advocates said “sweet and fruity” vaping products are encouraging youth to smoke, even though minors are already prohibited from purchasing them from convenience stores.
Flory Doucas, co-director and spokesperson for the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control, said youth vaping rates are “still much higher now than they were before e-cigarettes were legalized in Canada in 2018.”
A Health Canada study released in January found youth vaping among those aged 12 to 17 has dropped 60 per cent since its peak in 2019. The study also reported that 21 per cent of the 300,000 Canadians who quit smoking in 2024 used vaping products and e-cigarettes to do so.
During the press conference, Doucas said a separate Health Canada report found that 43 per cent of vape shops across Canada violated one or “several” federal rules on vaping products. She also pointed to widespread non-compliance among sellers already banned from offering flavoured products, including in Quebec.
She argued that, despite the violations, jurisdictions with flavour bans have seen vaping decline without a corresponding rise in tobacco use, which she said supports a nationwide ban on flavoured vaping products.
Quebec introduced a full ban on flavoured tobacco products in 2023. Health Canada, however, has reported that youth smoking has been declining since the early 2000s, while youth vaping has fallen steadily since its 2019 peak.
Dr Hassan Mir, a cardiologist at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, stated there was a “rise of e-cigarette use among youth” and that a key driver of this was flavoured e-cigarette products.
“Flavours like candy, fruits, chocolate, desserts, et cetera, et cetera, which are not designed for adults who smoke and want to quit and want to achieve long-term cessation, but rather, they’re designed to attract new users,” he said. “ And the unfortunate aspect of this whole thing is that they’re working.”
He said nicotine was not “benign” because of its highly addictive nature, adding that vaping carries harms and advocating for a full ban, which he claimed would stop people from using it.
Mir repeated the claim that jurisdictions that have introduced bans “haven’t seen major issues.”
He also said the push to ban flavoured vaping products was not “meant” to restrict choice “unnecessarily,” but to protect youth from products he described as “engineered specifically to attract youth.”
Mir did not respond to Juno News before the deadline when asked about Health Canada reports showing that 21 per cent of Canadians who quit in 2024 used vaping products, and about studies suggesting vaping is 95 per cent less harmful than cigarette smoke.
During the press conference, Mir was also asked about nicotine pouches. He said no studies were showing they reduce smoking, but later acknowledged there was one study that may suggest a similar effect to nicotine replacement gum.
“There’s actually no evidence that nicotine pouches help people quit smoking, none. There’s never been a randomized controlled trial that’s shown that nicotine pouches lead to a reduction in smoking cessation,” he said. “There’s one study that’s been done that’s demonstrated that they may help people reduce, but to no greater extent than regular gum that’s available as a nicotine replacement therapy product or placebo.”
He added that many of his patients have told him they are using nicotine products with levels far exceeding federal limits, often obtained on the black market.
Mir was not available when asked whether banning flavoured vapes would reduce use or drive more people to contraband and online markets, which he suggested pose greater public health risks.