BC introduces landmark legislation to end misleading vaping advertising
The BC government has introduced the first legislation in Canada to recover health-care costs from companies that use “deceptive practices” to sell vaping products.
Attorney General Nikki Sharma said in Victoria on Wednesday that the law is modeled after the same law the government used to prosecute tobacco companies and opioid manufacturers.
He said some vaping companies “engage in deceptive practices to increase their profits” by portraying their products as safe and sometimes beneficial, often targeting impressionable youth, “knowing full well how false their claims are.”
BC was the first province to sue tobacco companies, and it is “getting better at these lawsuits,” Sharma said.
BC is introducing first-of-its-kind legislation to hold vape companies accountable for deceptive marketing and youth-targeted products.
If passed, it will help us recover public health costs and prevent companies from putting profits before people.
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The recent $32.5 billion settlement reached by Canadian tobacco companies will bring $3.6 billion to BC over the next 18 years.
“We are getting better and winning,” Sharma said. “So, this enables us to take on these companies in court.”
He said money from any future litigation would flow into general revenue rather than health care.
“It’s all money that we use to provide services to British Columbians, and our health care is growing over time,” he said.
Sharma said vaping is on the rise in Canada, especially among young people, and its popularity threatens the decline in tobacco use, which he called “one of the most significant public health achievements of recent times.”
He said BC “risks losing an entire new generation to nicotine addiction.”
Sharma couldn’t provide a specific figure for the cost of vaping to the health care system, but said it’s a price everyone pays.
“We know that vaping has been linked to… an increase in respiratory diseases, an increase in long-term addictions, an increase in other things like mental health problems, and a variety of impacts, particularly on young people.”
Education Minister Lisa Beare said the legislation complements the province’s measures to help youth understand the dangers of vaping and make educated choices.
Vaping association calls for ‘sensible rules’
The Canadian Vaping Association, which describes itself as “the voice for the growing Canadian vaping industry,” did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the proposed legislation.
The association has said it is “advocating for sensible regulations that balance adult harm reduction with youth safety and education.”
“Vaping is one of the most effective harm reduction tools available,” the association said in an online news release May 30, adding that 1.9 million adults in Canada are vaping.
Its president, Sam Tam, said he shares Health Canada’s goal of reducing smoking rates to below five per cent by 2035.
Health Canada says vaping products can help people quit smoking, and switching to vaping completely is less harmful than continuing to smoke.
But it also says that no vaping products have been approved as cessation aids and that vaping “is not harmless and is not intended for young people.”
It says children and adolescents are “particularly sensitive” to the harmful effects of nicotine as brain development continues through adolescence and early adulthood.
The legal age for British Columbians to purchase vaping products is 19 years old.
BC retailers are only allowed to sell vapor products that contain nicotine, nicotine salts or cannabis. It is illegal to sell vapor products that contain only flavors.
