Victoria — The B.C. government announced a host of new vaping and e-cigarette regulations Monday, which largely revolve around protecting youth.
B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix and Education Minister Rob Fleming announced the new regulations, which include restrictions on flavours, advertising, and a nicotine limit per vaping pod.
Dix stressed that the use of vapes and e-cigarettes among youth has led to “significant and obvious risks” to the health of British Columbians.
B.C.'s education minister said youth who try vaping are seven times more likely to smoke cigarettes in the future.
“Nicotine, in particular, is highly addictive and what we have seen is an aggressive campaign over time to promote the use of vaping products among youth, even though products like that are not allowed to be sold to people under the age of 19,” said Dix.
Dix announced that B.C.’s new vaping and e-cigarette regulations have been based around a 10-point plan.
One of the key features of the plan is to reduce the maximum amount of nicotine that is allowed in each individual vaping pod to 20 milligrams per millilitre. Dix says that this amount of nicotine is similar to the amount found in a pack of 20 cigarettes.
B.C. is one of the first jurisdictions in North America to place this nicotine limit on vaping products, which are similar to standards set in the European Union, said Dix.
Meanwhile, the B.C. government is making dramatic changes to vaping and e-cigarette advertising regulations.
Vaping flavours will be restricted to plain packaging only, and only stores that have an age requirement of 19 years or older will be able to sell flavoured vape capsules.
Stores that sell vaping products but are not age-restricted, such as convenience stores, will only be allowed to sell plain tobacco capsules.
Fleming says that many vaping flavours are clearly aimed at youth consumers, with flavours “like cotton candy or melon lush.”
“Those harmless sounding flavours are directly targeting youth as consumers,” he said.
Similarly, the B.C. government says it is cracking down on where vaping and e-cigarette advertisements can be placed.
Advertisements can no longer be located in areas where “youth spend time” said Dix, which include areas like bus stops and shopping malls.
Fleming says that outreach and education campaigns will also take place at schools across the province.
The education minister says that more than 2,000 vaping education toolkits have been dispersed to schools, and an online vaping awareness campaign that was launched in B.C. has been viewed more than 27 million times.
Fleming notes that the B.C. government is increasingly turning to youth to help develop these awareness campaigns, which helps communicate health risks in ways that are relevant to young people.
B.C.’s health minister said that while vaping can be used to help smokers transition away from cigarettes, e-cigarette products significantly increase health risks among youth.
“Vaping is, of course, for some people harm reduction,” he said.
“But if you are a young person, if you are under 19, it is just harm.”
