A Canadian vaping industry trade organization warns provincial and national government officials to be careful with a series of new vaping restrictions and product regulations.
ONTARIO — The Canadian Vaping Association has issued a series of warnings to government officials and lawmakers urging them to consider the negative impacts regarding a set of new vaping regulations that would restrict access and flavor accessibility.
Darryl Tempest, the executive director of the association, argues that the incoming restrictions could prop up a black market that places vapers, smokers, and the general public at greater risk than the claims that widespread vaping have on public safety.
“Historically, prohibition has failed and restricting vape flavours will be no different,” said Tempest. “There is no evidence that flavour restrictions reduce youth usage, but there is ample evidence that prohibition will increase smoking rates, strengthen illicit channels and jeopardize the safety of Canadians.”
“The rushed proposal has placed an extremely low value on human life and fails to properly weight the negative outcomes,” Tempest further alleges. “Further regulation should not occur until the unintended consequences are properly assessed.”
Tempest, in the press release, also cites the oft-mentioned study conducted by Public Health England, which claims that vaping is at least 95 percent safer when compared to traditional smoking.
A portion of the proposed restrictions on flavored electronic cigarettes intends to restrict access to illicit THC pods that were found to be the culprit in a series of severe lung injuries caused by vaping in 2019 and early 2020. The lung injury, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is officially recognized as the e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury, or EVALI. Fortunately, EVALI cases have declined sharply due to the onslaught of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the implementation of a variety of public health rules governing person-to-person contact and economic activity.
In Canada, as Tempest puts it, the coming restrictions worry members of the vape industry that a secondary EVALI outbreak could come as a result of a gray market or pure illicit market.
