Poll shows most Sask. residents want more smoking restrictions
With no changes made to the provincial tobacco legislation since 2009, advocates say Saskatchewan is falling behind the rest of Canada when it comes to protecting and educating its residents.
The call for action from the Canadian Cancer Society and the Saskatchewan Lung Association comes during National Non-Smoking Week and was released alongside results of a poll they commissioned showing massive support within Saskatchewan for measures to reduce smoking and provide legislation for where tobacco can be sold and used.
Of the residents polled, 88 per cent supported the idea of tax revenue from tobacco sales be funnelled toward education, prevention and enforcement. Seventy per cent also supported raising the legal purchasing age from 18 to 21. Residents also support legislation banning smoking on restaurant patios (75 per cent,) public gatherings on municipal property (81 per cent,) sports fields (84 per cent) and children’s playgrounds (94 per cent.) The poll was conducted in Sept. 2017 and surveyed 505 Sask. residents online. It had a margin of error of plus or minus five per cent, 19 times out of 20.
Currently, any restrictions in place in Saskatchewan are only at the municipal level. Saskatoon was one of the first municipalities in Canada to impose bylaws banning smoking indoors as well as on restaurant patios in 2004.
“At the time that was really ahead of the curve,” said Donna Pasiechnik, the Canadian Cancer Society manager of tobacco control in Saskatchewan.
Pasiechnik said one major problem is that businesses aren’t required to obtain a licence from the province to sell tobacco — even though it could act as a potential revenue generator and give a clearer picture of how many businesses sell the products. She says it could also act as a deterrent if stores were required to pay a licensing fee to stock the products — and stores would be less likely to sell to minors if it meant risking this licence.
Pasiechnik also noted the support of 63 per cent of respondents to ban flavoured tobacco products. She says though the federal legislation banning menthol cigarettes and flavoured cigarillos is a start — she would like to see all flavoured tobacco taken off the shelves including popular options like flavoured chewing tobacco.
“Why would we not, given that we have the highest rate of (flavoured chewing tobacco) usage in the country, ban it?” Pasiechnik said.
E-cigarettes are now also playing a huge role in the flavoured tobacco market adds Jennifer May, the vice-president of health and promotion for the Saskatchewan Lung Association.
“Right now my 13-year-old son can go buy an e-cigarette,” she said. “The flavours are certainly the way to entice youth and young adults who are the biggest users of these products ... the flavours not only mask it for the user and makes people think it doesn’t have any harm associated.”
Both May and Pasiechnik say these poll numbers should show the government it’s time to update the laws governing tobacco use in the province and bring e-cigarette and marijuana under the same umbrella.