The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit wants to discourage the promotion of e-cigarettes and vaping implements.
At its monthly board meeting Thursday afternoon in Windsor, the health unit unanimously approved a resolution to ban the promotion of these products at retail establishments and online. The resolution will be sent to the Ontario Ministry of Health in hopes that the ban will become law.
The board first heard a presentation by its medical officer of health, Dr. Wajid Ahmed, outlining what he called the alleged benefits of vaping, as well as the health risks that come with it. The board had already approved resolutions calling for more regulation of this industry at federal, provincial and local levels.
Nicole Dupuis, the health unit's director of health promotion, said the resolution does not ban vaping products completely, but rather asks the province for an amendment to the Smoke-Free Ontario Act to bar the promotion of these products.
"When you go to a convenience store or a gas station, you see product marketing on gas pumps or posters outside," said Dupuis. "You don't see that for tobacco but you see that for vaping because it's allowed in the current Act. So what the resolution effectively would do is ask the government to reverse that."
The health unit took action after more information was made known about the health risks of vaping, particularly around young people. The WECHU said evidence has shown that e-cigarettes contain unhealthy levels of nicotine. Some of those varieties, according to Dr. Ahmed, have enough to kill a 30-kilogram child. Vaping rates among young people have shot up 74 per cent between 2017 and 2018, according to the resolution.
Dupuis said there's been a lot of feedback and this resolution is the first step toward ending the marketing of these products to young people.
"We have heard from our municipalities in particular, as well as our school boards as it relates to the increase of vaping amongst youth," said Dupuis. "We have laid a lot of charges related to vaping and have done a lot of proactive work with the school boards in an effort to try to educate and assist them."
The resolution also asks the ministry to restrict the sale of flavoured vaping products to include only tobacco flavours, targeting current smokers who are trying to quit.