As electronic or e-cigarettes increase in popularity, some health advocates need them all to be controlled.
E- cigarettes are batteryoperated devices which use a liquid filled cartridge that could include mint, vanilla or other flavourings. The contents are vaporized into a mist that is breathed into the lungs. Some cartridges also contain nicotine.
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Some analysts project that e-cigarettes will outsell regular smokes in ten years. (Ashley Smith/Times-News/Associated Press)
Health Canada has not authorized retailers to offer nicotine-filled cartridges, but they are available online and at some flea-markets.
“To date, no electronic cigarettes with nicotine or health claims have been authorized by Health Canada,” a spokesperson for the department stated in an email Tuesday.
“As the security, quality and efficacy of these products remains dubious, Health Canada continues to advise Canadians not to use electronic cigarettes while they might pose health risks.”
Electronic cigarettes are sometimes advertised as an option to help individuals quit smoking, or simply as a tobacco alternative.
Analysts think the market for e-cigarettes will surpass $10 billion in the US by 2017 and that e-cigarettes will outsell regular cigarettes within ten years, said David Sweanor, a law professor in the University of Ottawa who works on tobacco and health issues.
“No one’s given me a kiss in the cheek for giving them a piece of Nicorette gum, but I have gotten that for giving them an electronic cigarette,” Sweanor said.
Sweanor believes in using e-cigarettes as a hazard reduction strategy for cigarette smokers. “People smoke for the nicotine, they perish from the smoke.”
E-cigarette laws elsewhere
Last week, the U.K. government announced it plans to deal with e-cigarettes as a medicine beginning in 2016.
France plans to prohibit use of e-cigarettes in public venues, Reuters said.
EU wide rules are expected to be launched in 2016, UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency said.
In 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration discovered traces of carcinogens and also a harmful substance used in antifreeze in two brands of e-cigarettes. Shipments from China were blocked until a federal judge indicated the devices should be regulated as tobacco products rather than drugs or medical devices, the New-york Times reported.
In March, Australia’s government said it was concerned about the utilization of e-cigarettes, saying the effect of broad-scale use is not known as well as the result in the community may be harmful.
In Singapore, legislation prohibits “the importation, distribution, sale or offer for sale of any confectionery or other food item or some toy or other article that’s made to resemble a tobacco product.”
It is not nicotine itself that causes most of the injury associated with smokes, said Dr. Peter Selby, chief of the addictions division in the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto.
“We really do not know whether these are meeting any sorts of standards of safety for people to inhale to them, whether or not they have nicotine or not,” Selby said of e-cigarettes.
For Selby, the primary issue is whether e-cigarettes match manufacturing and regulatory inspection standards for making products under hygienic conditions, as an example, and also to ensure they do not burst and cause burns. The potential harm of inhaling nicotine in e-cigarettes also requires to be compared with the risk from normal cigarettes.
“We want a framework to examine that and understand it so we could actually tell smokers it’s a safer choice,” Selby said.
“Right now, it seems like we’ve got our head in the sand. If you take the nicotine out of the tobacco and only give people nicotine, the possible harm is probably very, very little.”
During National NonSmoking Week in January, the Canadian Lung Association said it encourages people to stop smoking using scientifically-proven methods like nicotine replacement patches and gums. The group also objects to flavours that appeal to children, fearing e-cigarettes may encourage those under 18 to try tobacco products.
At Esmoker Canada, an e-cigarette store in Toronto, Mario Martinasevic states sales have almost doubled every month. Client Ashley Harris calls e-cigarettes without nicotine a convenient option to cigarettes when out with friends that she can smoke in work or at a bar without stepping outside.
“I don’t want to be inhaling nicotine,” said Harris. “I am finding it fine without it.”
Since switching to using e-cigarettes, Harris said food tastes better, she’s feeling more physically fit and her teeth are better. She’s also saving money.