consumer and anti-competitive.
"Do this and don’t be surprised when regulators come for your
favourite thing."
The debate was sparked by research published in the journal JAMA
Paediatrics, which used data from more than 12,000 16 to 19-yearolds
to track changes in vaping habits.
While past month prevalence more than doubled over the two-year
window, regular e-cigarette use among young people remained low.
Just 5.7 percent of respondents reported vaping more than 20 days
over the previous month, though this is a significant increase on the
1.8 percent reported in 2017.
While rising youth e-cigarette use continues to alarm health and
anti-tobacco groups, the study also revealed that youth smoking
numbers are on the decline.
Youth ever-smoker rates dropped from 11.9 percent to 7.4 percent
while the past month smoker rate dropped from 6.7 percent to 3.8
percent.
The findings suggest that some youth smokers are switching to
what regulator Health Canada acknowledges to be a less-harmful
alternative for adult smokers.
"Nicotine strength, not flavours,
is the difference between those
markets that have high youth
uptake versus those that don’t."
The federal agency is taking steps to reduce youth vaping numbers
following the lead of a number of provinces.
Nova Scotia signed off a 20mg nicotine cap on May 11. The
regulation will take effect on September 1.
Mohammed Al-Hamdani, director of health initiatives for the Lung
Association of Nova Scotia, welcomed the move, saying that the
current 60mg limit was far too high.
He said: "You're basically having a product that is essentially almost
like a crack nicotine.
"When youth use these products, they are in a very high prospect for
getting addicted to it."
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