Health Groups call on Federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel to ban vape flavours within her first 100 days.

OTTAWA, ON, May 26, 2025 /CNW/ - Deeply concerned with the impact of the previous government's permissive approach to nicotine vaping products, tobacco control organizations are calling on the new government to quickly align controls on this market with those used for tobacco.

As part of these important reforms, they are asking for regulations to ban flavours in vaping products to be finalized within the Health Minister's first 100 days in office. Restricting flavours in vaping products was a commitment made by the Liberal Party in the recent federal election.

"Minister Michel has inherited the youth vaping crisis, and her intervention is urgently needed to clean up the mess her predecessors left behind," said Les Hagen, Executive Director of Action on Smoking & Health. "This will require her to stand up to the tobacco industry and its front groups, and to protect youth from their attempts to undermine health policies."

"The youth vaping crisis has gone on far too long," he added. "The past government's decision to liberalize the sale of vaping products has negatively impacted one-half of Canadian youth without producing any measurable benefit in overall smoking cessation among adults."

Vaping products became legal for sale and promotion in Canada in May 2018, and were exempted from the marketing restrictions that have been proven to help protect young people from starting to use tobacco products. These measures include large graphic health warnings, plain and standardized products and packaging, bans on flavourings and sweeteners, and controls on accessibility including a ban on interprovincial sales.

"Over the past seven years, parents, teachers and health professionals have struggled to protect kids from the predatory commercial activities which followed," said Flory Doucas, co-director of the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control. "They have waited for meaningful federal government action while hundreds of thousands of children were being recruited to nicotine addiction by an industry sugar-coating a harmful drug with exotic flavours and playful devices."

Health Canada's 2023 Canadian Substance Use Survey found that over one million Canadian teenagers aged 15-19 (48%) had tried vaping products, 681,000 (31%) had used them in the past month and that 400,600 (17%) were vaping on a daily basis.

"We cannot afford for this government to sit on its hands or take the same laissez-faire approach to the tobacco and nicotine industry as its predecessor," said Cynthia Callard, Executive Director of Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada. "The need for stronger regulations has been recognized by government for years, as the cost of its inaction continues to climb."

Health Canada proposed several measures to address the youth vaping crisis in the spring of 2019. Only one of these measures has been approved (limiting nicotine concentration), despite ongoing appeals by health organizations and federal and provincial Medical Officers of Health. Four years after draft regulations to restrict flavourings were published, they have still not been finalized despite Ministerial promises to do so.

"The legalization of vaping products has not produced a net public health benefit in Canada," said Ms. Callard. "Since 2018 there has been no increase in quit attempts or in successful quitting among smokers, and the number of former smokers has actually dropped. Smoking rates are going down at a slower rate than in years prior to the legalization of nicotine vaping products." 

Opening the vaping market allowed corporate interests to halt the reduction in nicotine addiction. The widespread use of nicotine products among young people means there are as many or more nicotine users in Canada as there were before these products were legalized. Only a minority of Canadian vapers (28%) are former smokers. 

"The previous government's preference for a poorly regulated vaping market has facilitated the tobacco industry pivoting to other harmful products and launching a new epidemic of nicotine addiction," said Mr. Hagen.

Health Canada's Canadian Substance Use Survey found that one in every three young Canadians who had tried vaping even once were using these products on a daily basis. Independent studies of nicotine use among youth report that young vapers find themselves more addicted than do young cigarette smokers. Many studies report that youth who use vaping products are much more likely to start using tobacco products.

In addition to being highly addictive, vaping products present significant risks for cardiovascular disease, lung injury and exposure to toxins, especially given some of the additives used to flavour liquids.

"We are not calling for a ban on vaping products," said Flory Doucas. "We are calling for the use of proven regulatory controls to prevent industry from enticing young people to experiment with and become addicted to nicotine."

"At the current rate of initiation, the nicotine industry is set to recruit more than 15,000 school-aged children to vaping during Minister Michel's first 100 days in office. She is the Canadian with the greatest power and responsibility to bring that number down before the start of the school year this September."

• See this backgrounder presenting the latest data on youth vaping
• See this compilation of vaping products and promotions 

SOURCE Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control

Les Hagen - Action on Smoking & Health - [email protected]; Cynthia Callard - Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada - [email protected]; Flory Doucas - Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control - [email protected]