Last May, Canada’s Bill S-5 legalized the sales of vaping products, and amended both the Non-smokers’ Health Act of 1988 and the Tobacco Act of 1997, changing how vaping and tobacco products are sold and marketed. A detailed description of the TVPA can be found on the Canadian Government’s website, which explains that while for non-smokers taking up vaping would increase health risks, if smokers had to completely switch to vaping, their health risks would be greatly minimized.
Carolyn Tuckwell, CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of South Coast BC, which serves 12,000 youth and families annually, said that there are features about the product, such as the sleek, USB-like design that make it appealing to underage youth.
“We simply don’t want kids having access to something that is addictive,” Tuckwell explained. “We know that vaping is increasingly popular … we are seeing that young people in their school-age years are in fact getting into vaping, and especially the flavour formulas seem to mask the sense of risk associated.”
Juul to launch device with age tracking system
However last month, the e-cigarette manufacturer said that it will be launching a new device with an inbuilt Bluetooth system that is able to detect users’ age. The redesigned Juul, is to be launched in several Western European countries and was initially designed to be able to track former smokers’ nicotine intake. However CEO Kevin Burns has said that it will also be able to verify a user’s age in order to prevent use by minors.
This age tracking system is the latest in a series of measures that the company is implementing to mitigate the media backlash that it has faced in recent months. Last June, the San Francisco-based company also announced that it would cease promoting its products online, and instead of advertising its devices, it would promote the devices as cessation tools by using images of former smokers who have switched from smoking to vaping the Juul device.
Read Further: The Star
