Saskatchewan introduces legislation to address vaping

The Government of Saskatchewan is looking to change The Tobacco Control Act to regulate vaping in the province.

The proposed amendments will allow the province to treat vaping almost exactly like it regulates cigarettes with the goal to decrease the number of youth using vaping products.

“This is fairly new. We think the best approach is to treat it like tobacco. It shows people how serious this issue is,” Health Minister Jim Reiter said at the legislative building.

According to the government, the amendments will:

• Restrict the sale of vapour/e-cigarette devices and products to individuals 18 years of age and older;
• Prohibit the display of vapour/e-cigarette products in a retail business where young persons have access;
• Restrict the use of vapour/e-cigarette products in and around public buildings, including schools and school grounds, in the same manner as our provincial tobacco legislation;
• Prohibit the sale of vapour/e-cigarette products from specified facilities such as amusement parks, arcades, and theatres where youth frequent;
• Restrict advertising of vapour/e-cigarette products in the same manner as tobacco products by prohibiting advertising signs and promotional signs in areas where young persons can enter;
• Provide the ability to restrict the sale of flavoured tobacco and vapour products by regulation; and,
• Expand the authority of tobacco enforcement officers to include enforcement of vapour/e-cigarette product restrictions.
• The province is not banning flavoured vaping products yet. It wants to do more consultation before making a decision in flavours but wanted to get a solid framework in place in the meantime.

“I would view this as Step 1. I just felt like this was an urgent-enough issue. We need to protect our kids and so we needed to get this done. I didn’t want to wait until everything is decided and perfect before we introduced the bill,” Reiter said.

Reiter admits flavours already available on store shelves are appealing to youth.

“I’ve walked into stores and you see flavours that are just very obviously targeted to kids. When there’s flavours like cotton candy and bubble gum, that’s not targeted at a 40-year-old. That’s targeted at a kid and so I’m concerned about that,” said Reiter.

One idea to be considered is to only allow flavoured vaping products to be sold in specialty shops.

The province has decided to set the legal vaping age at 18 instead of raising it to 19 like alcohol and cannabis. Reiter said he’s not ruling out any changes down the road, but wanted to keep vaping closely aligned with tobacco, with a legal age of 18.

Reiter also explained there’s not much being done now to enforce vaping, and this legislation will help moving forward.

“There has been virtually, to my understanding, little if any enforcement right now. This is going to allow our tobacco enforcement people to enforce vaping as well,” said Reiter.

Jennifer May, the vice-president of community engagement with the Lung Association of Saskatchewan, called the bill a good first start and a way to protect kids.

However, she wants all flavours banned.

“Of course our job is not done here. We will continue to work with government to see and to make sure that flavours do get regulated,” said May.

Respiratory physician Mark Fenton spoke about the dangers of vaping, simply advising not to do it.

“The companies that make it tell you that it’s to quit smoking so if you don’t smoke, don’t do it. This is something that we don’t really fully understand how it affects the lung. We’re starting to see evidence that it has negative effects on the lung, both in the short term and the long term,” said Fenton.

When asked about setting the legal age of vaping to 18, Fenton said it parallels tobacco but it can also be a discussion for another day.

“Honestly, I wish that vaping just wasn’t legal for anybody,” Fenton said.

If passed, the new regulations will take effect in the spring.