Editorial
After many decades of hard-fought battles on many fronts, the anti-smoking lobby in Canada has seen significant gains in recent years, including a marked reduction in overall tobacco use across the nation.
The stop-smoking efforts have included not only vast amounts of work by health- care professionals and researchers, but also millions and millions of volunteer hours spent raising funds and awareness.
According to the Canadian Lung Association (CLA) the resulting reduction in smoking has certainly saved thousands and thousands of Canadians from grievous sickness and premature death.
Yet, also according to the CLA, a new threat to the health and well-being of Canadians of all ages has now emerged in the form of e-cigarettes ñ creating a new battlefield in a bitter and bloody war.
E-cigarettes are electronic devices containing cartridges filled with nicotine or flavoured chemicals that are vaporized into a mist, which is then inhaled. They look similar to regular tobacco cigarettes or cigars, but without the smoke when used.
Although it is currently illegal to sell nicotine-filled e-cigarette in Canada, at least $1 billion worth of the devices were sold in the U.S. last year.
And as with other illegal products, such as cocaine, nicotine-filled e-cigarettes are now making their way into Canada through smuggling, according to the Canadian Medical Association (CMA).
In a recent editorial in its monthly Canadian Medical Association Journal, the CMA called on the federal government to take immediate steps to have all e-cigarettes regulated as drug-delivery devices.
The CMA is concerned that unless the devices are very tightly regulated, the companies making e-cigarettes will do all they can to ramp up advertising and marketing aimed squarely at Canadian youth.
"Fears therefore arise that a new generation of youth who would not otherwise take up smoking could be enticed by e-cigarettes into nicotine addiction and subsequent tobacco use,î the CMA says.
"Concerns are amplified further by the emergence of tobacco companies as major players in the e-cigarette industry without any accompanying slowdown in tobacco production or marketing, which suggests that the tobacco industry sees a future where e-cigarettes accompany and perpetuate, rather than supplant, tobacco use.î
The Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Lung Association are all but begging the Harper government to take new and decisive action to prevent e-cigarettes from getting a firm hold on Canadian youth.
After the long and hard battle fought by the anti-smoking lobby over the past many years, the federal government must now do all it can to ensure this latest battle is won.
