Back in 2016, the Government of Canada introduced Bill S-5. This bill was intended to amend the Tobacco Act and rename it the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act (TVPA). TVPA proposes to regulate the manufacture, sale, labelling and promotion of vaping products separate from tobacco products. Recently, Health Canada has released their consultation of their proposals to the upcoming regulations.

Although it was initially designed to be used as a cessation aid for smokers, vape products are now very common among Canadian youth. Although vape products overall possess fewer harmful substances than cigarettes, the two contain the same hazardous ingredient nicotine. There is a lot of concern of the popularity of these products among youth and the possible detrimental effects of nicotine at a young age. Many are hoping that these regulations will restrict access to vape products by youth to prevent addiction and health effects, and address potential health and safety risks in nicotine-containing vape products.

These proposed regulations state that the nicotine content of a nicotine-containing vape product must be displayed in mg/mL on the product label. Vaping products containing nicotine must display a warning label addressing its addictiveness and its harm when taken during pregnancy.

Included in the new regulations will be maintaining the current regulatory process for vaping products marketed for therapeutic use, such as smoking cessation. To limit youth exposure to these products, there will be efforts to restrict advertisement of vape products, as well as age verification during sale of the products. The proposed regulations will also ban the use of certain ingredients that imply health benefits such as vitamins.

During the consultation period of the bill proposal, many commenters have expressed support for the proposals. Health Canada will take many of the comments into consideration when developing regulations for vape products.

For more information, please do not hesitate to contact Focal Point Research Inc.  We are leading North American Health Canada consultants.