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Gélinas wants restrictions on e-cigarettes in Ontario

“It would mean wherever you're not allowed to smoke, whether it be at work, in a public area, at restaurants or bars, you would not be allowed to use e-cigarettes,” she said.
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E-cigarettes were introduced in Canada around 2007 and release a vapour usually containing vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, flavouring, and in some cases, nicotine. File photo.
“It would mean wherever you're not allowed to smoke, whether it be at work, in a public area, at restaurants or bars, you would not be allowed to use e-cigarettes,” she said.

An amendment to the Smoke-Free Ontario Act would also restrict people under the age of 19 from purchasing e-cigarettes.

E-cigarettes are currently caught in a legal grey area in Canada.
The devices, which release a vapour – usually containing vegetable glycerin, propylene glycol, flavouring, and in some cases, nicotine – are not approved by Health Canada, and if they make any health claims, or contain nicotine, are technically illegal.

But they are sold at storefronts across the country, and in Sudbury.

“There's zero regulation with this new product,” Gélinas said.
Gélinas said e-cigarettes are often marketed to youth, and added she sees them as a gateway to get people into the habit of smoking.

Francine Brunet-Fechner, a public health nurse with the Sudbury and District Health Unit's tobacco team, said the public health organization supports more controls around e-cigarettes.

“They're very easy to access at this time, which is a big concern for public health, especially for youth,” she said.

Because e-cigarettes are still relatively new – they were first introduced to Canada around 2007 – Brunet-Fechner said their effectiveness as smoking cessation products remains unproven.

“At this point in time any health care practitioner really can't encourage anyone to use them for that purpose,” she said.
Researchers still do not know how harmful e-cigarettes are, Brunet-Fechner added.

Two of the key ingredients – vegetable glycerin and propylene glycol – are approved for human consumption, but not as a vapour. Their effect on the lungs could be very different than when they are consumed as a food substance or as part of pharmaceuticals.

Damian Weusten, co-owner of Pete's Puff 'n' Stuff, an e-cigarette vendor located in Sudbury's Rainbow Centre, said it should be up to business owners to decide whether or not they want to allow customers to use e-cigarettes in their establishments.

But Weusten said he would support legislation to ban minors from buying e-cigarettes.

His stall in the Rainbow Centre includes a sign that says he does not sell to minors, and he said he asks anyone who looks under the age of 25 to show their identification when they buy an e-cigarette.

Some of the e-cigarettes Weusten sells contain nicotine in varying amounts, depending on how often the individual smoked before trying e-cigarettes. The amounts range from six milligrams to 24 milligrams for heavy smokers.

The liquids for the e-cigarettes, manufactured by Canadian company Gold Seal eJuice, come in more than 50 flavours that range from “tasty tobacco,” to sweeter varieties such as “pretty in pink cotton candy”, “sweet banana” and “American apple pie.”

Weusten admitted his e-cigarettes are not a smoking cessation product, but said they can be a viable alternative to cigarettes.

“Four ingredients against the litany of garbage that's inside cigarettes,” he said. “It's not very difficult math to do.”

He said the vast majority of his customers are existing smokers, who see e-cigarettes as a less harmful alternative to their habit.

“I think the scales are very strongly tipped in our favour, and the public knows that,” Weusten said, comparing his product to cigarettes.

But Gélinas was less enthusiastic about the potential for the new devices.

“Why introduce a new harmful product when there is no reason for it?"`she said. “Even if it's 50 per cent as harmful (as cigarettes), why do we want a new harmful product getting in?”

@jmigneault

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Jonathan Migneault

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