Government of Canada considering new disclosure requirements for vaping
OTTAWA - In response to Canada's rapidly evolving vaping market, and with that a large number of vaping substances and new formulations/flavours, Health Canada says it is "restricted in its capacity to properly track market trends due to limited access to information on vaping products sales and composition."
In turn, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions and Associate Minister of Health, Carolyn Bennett, kicked off a 45-day public consultation period, beginning on June 18, to inform the development of new proposed vaping product reporting regulations.
"As the vaping market continues to evolve rapidly and entice Canadians, including young people, to use vaping products, we are taking action to better protect everyone in Canada by more fully understanding the impact of these products on their health," says Bennett. "The proposed regulations will help us educate Canadians about the health harms while furthering research aimed at reducing the amount of people impacted by harms related to tobacco and vaping product use across the country."
The proposed regulations would require vaping product manufacturers to disclose information to Health Canada about sales and ingredients used in vaping products, supporting the Government of Canada's efforts to keep pace with the rapidly evolving vaping market.
"Tobacco and vaping can pose serious risks to Canadians' health, especially young smokers. As the vaping market is rapidly evolving, we are taking steps to better understand the products and their ingredients," said Minister of Health Jean-Yves Duclos. "With the new requirements that vaping manufacturers share information with Health Canada about their products, our government will be in a better position to evaluate the impact of vaping on the health and safety of Canadians."
The move would be a first step to introducing vaping product reporting requirements. Health Canada says it is considering additional reporting requirements for implementation in the future, similar to those already in place for tobacco products. This could include reporting on information related to research and development, as well as promotional activities. It could also include disclosing some information to the public which would increase industry transparency.
The proposed regulations can be found in the Canada Gazette, Part I. Participate in the consultation by submitting comments to [email protected] until August 2. The government says feedback from the consultation will inform the development of the final Regulations.