Quebec to ban flavours and restrict nicotine content
Quebec intends to ban the sale of flavoured vaping cartridges and limit their nicotine content after a public health report warned of a major increase in youth vaping in the province.
“With the growing popularity of vaporization products, especially among young people, it becomes imperative to act to prevent a new generation from becoming addicted to nicotine because of these products,” Health Minister Christian Dubé said Wednesday.
The public health report, which was released in August, blamed flavour cartridges in part for a surge in vaping among high school students.
“Numerous studies show that flavour is the main reason why young people are more inclined to vape,” the public health report noted. “Indeed, flavours, especially sweet ones, and the way they are marketed increases the attractiveness of the product and decreases the perception of health risks.”
In 2015, Quebec banned the sale of flavoured tobacco products and saw a reduction in the number of high-schoolers smoking such products within 30 days. Similar action should be taken with regard to vaping, the public health researchers recommended.
Flavoured vaping products are partially responsible for a 70-percent increase in high-school vaping since 2016, the public health report said.
That increase has led to concern that nicotine-dependence rates will grow, aggravated by the fact that vaping products can have much higher nicotine concentrations than cigarettes.
Dubé said the health ministry intends to limit nicotine concentration to 20 mg/ml. One cigarette, for comparison, contains about eight mg of nicotine.
Health officials are also worried about a rare lung disease associated with vaping, four confirmed cases of which were reported in Quebec between September 2019 and January 2020.
The Vaping Industry Trade Association ( VITA) urged the government to continue to allow the sale of flavoured vaping products.
“A possible ban on flavoured vapour products would create more problems by encouraging ex-smokers to smoke again,” the association wrote in a statement.