It’s considered an alternative to smoking cigarettes, yet it’s causing more harm than good.
With eight reported deaths in the United States and the number of reported related illness climbing daily, health officials from all over are calling for an end to vaping.
In Canada, health officials in Ontario and British Columbia are investigating four cases of severe lung diseases (one likely and three possible) linked to vaping products (also known as e-cigarettes), the Globe and Mail reports.
The likely case involves a high school student in London, Ont., who was hospitalized and on life-support at one point but has since recovered.
New York and Michigan have already banned sales of flavoured vaping products while U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans to remove flavoured e-cigarettes from store shelves.
Health organizations in our country have called on Health Canada to curb the promotion of vaping products, restrict available flavours and regulate the nicotine levels.
But will it help end the cycle of harm — especially among youth?
Robert Schwartz, a senior scientist in the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and executive director of the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit, believes so, but it will be tough.
“A total ban would be challenging for the (federal) government to do,” said Schwartz. “You have to ban all advertising and promotion. That’s how it (vaping) becomes normalized. Then, you have to get both flavoured (vape liquids) and ones with high nicotine concentrations out of convenience stores, and only make them available at vape shops to adults.”
Andy Ramkumar, who works at Gotham Vape in Queens, vapes at the store on September 17, 2019 in New York City.
Ontario Health Minister Christine Elliott issued a directive last Wednesday requiring public hospitals to provide the Chief Medical Officer of Health with statistics and non-identifying info related to pulmonary disease related to vaping.
Ministry of Health spokesperson David Jensen said prior to the directive, “hospitals could have potentially seen patients who fit the clinical profile of having vaping-related severe pulmonary disease and we wouldn’t necessarily know unless they voluntarily reported.”
“This first step will mandate hospitals to share this information as they identify patients who present with clinical profiles of the illness so that we can better understand the potential scope of this emerging issue and continue to engage experts to identify evidence-based solutions,” Jensen added.
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