TORONTO -- E-cigarettes and vapes without nicotine have been widely available in Canada since 2004, but the enactment of the 2018 Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (TVPA) and enticing flavoured products catapulted the product into new heights on the market.
Vaping is considered a less harmful delivery method of nicotine than smoke because of the absence of extra chemicals and toxins prevalent in traditional cigarettes, however there have been hundreds of cases of vaping-related lung injuries and illnesses in the U.S.
E-cigarettes were first introduced to the market in 2004, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation, but their popularity has exploded in recent years with the enactment of the TVPA, marking an increase in teen vape users.
The TVPA on May 23, 2018 which allowed adults to legally purchase that contained nicotine. The TVPA replaced the Tobacco Act, which governed how tobacco products were sold, labelled, produced and grown, .
While vapes and e-cigarette devices have been touted as a way to wean people off traditional cigarette smoking habits, in recent years the technology behind the devices has evolved significantly. That accounts for their meteoric rise in popularity and use, according to one researcher.
David Hammond, a public health professor at the University of Waterloo, has done extensive research on vaping for almost 20 years, with a special interest in youth vaping.
Hammond said in an interview with CTVNews.ca that although vapes with nicotine were legally sold after the 2018 TVPA, his research showed they were widely available regardless of the regulation.
鈥淥ne of the reasons they [the government] legalized it [nicotine products], was there was an acknowledgement that these products are here to stay,鈥 Hammond said. 鈥淚t was awkward at best for the government to say 鈥榦h this product should be banned鈥 but let the product that kills one out of every two or three long term users to be sold in every corner store.鈥
Hammond said the TVPA was a 鈥渞ecognition that these products may help some adult smokers transition away from smoking,鈥 but the 鈥渦ltimate impact鈥 is on how the product is regulated.
Referencing the flood of products that are marketed and appeal to young users through the use of 鈥渃andy鈥 flavours and sleek design, Hammond said, 鈥渋n hindsight, realizing that when they [the government] opened the door to these products, they probably opened a few more doors or opened a door a little more widely than they should have.鈥
Hammond said the popularity rise of vaping can be encapsulated in the story of vape company Juul which debuted 鈥渁 lovely modern looking product鈥 that was 鈥渇resh,鈥 came with 鈥渂rilliant flavours鈥 and was 鈥渕arketed with a very effective social media campaign.
鈥淏ut you don鈥檛 get to be the dominant player in this billion dollar marker just with those things,鈥 Hammond said. 鈥淲hat Juul did more than anything else is they unlocked how to deliver very high levels of nicotine concentration in a way that easier and smoother to inhale.鈥
Juul changed the chemistry involved in vaping by using 鈥渘icotine salts,鈥 Hammond said, which deliver high levels of nicotine without the harshness traditionally associated with other high-level products.
鈥淭hat was the turning point,鈥 Hammond said, adding that the emergence of Juul on the market coincided with the implementation of the vaping act.
鈥淛ust at the point where you鈥檙e opening stores and putting ads up, all of a sudden the products that you鈥檙e advertising and selling are doing a much better job delivering nicotine 鈥hat鈥檚 when we started to see kids not just trying them but using them more regularly,鈥 Hammond said.
The wide array of flavoured products that directly appeal to teens and youth are a major factor in the uptick in vape use among that population, as 鈥渋t normalizes the product and we know certain flavours like the candy ones are more popular with kids than adults,鈥 Hammond said.
For Hammond, the way forward is a regulatory balance that limits certain flavours and high nicotine vape products to adult retail access only to make it harder for teens and youth to get ahold of them.
鈥淭hat involves changing advertising, changing flavours and changing some retail access,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e need to clean up this market if it鈥檚 going to play a role in a therapeutic process [like assisting adult smokers quitting traditional cigarettes.]鈥
The dire stories coming out of the United States about illnesses related to vaping need to be viewed with a wider scope Hammond said, as 鈥渕ore than 80 per cent of the cases are from vaping THC or cannabis product鈥nd probably due to toxicants or contaminated products.鈥
鈥淚t鈥檚 all about what is in your product,鈥 Hammond said.
Cannabis vapes are among the new cannabis products set to become regulated and legal on Oct. 17, and available for sale in Canada at the earliest in mid-December.
