Almost 2,000 Canadians Tell Health Canada: Stop Unnecessary Vaping Regulations

OTTAWA, ON, Feb. 26, 2021 /CNW/ - Today Rights4Vapers delivered 1,988 letters to Health Canada from vapers and supporters across the country who are opposed to Health Canada's latest attempt to restrict the options for vapers by capping the nicotine content in these life saving products at 20 mg/mL.

"These letters were also sent through the official submission process, but because of Health Canada's history of systematically excluding the voice of Canadians who vape from the regulatory process, we wanted to make sure that the Minister of Health and her senior officials were aware of the views of thousands of Canadians," said Maria Papaioannoy, spokesperson for Rights4Vapers. "This is what we have so far… officials should expect more in the days ahead!"

The official submission period for these new regulations ends on March 4, 2021. Each Canadian who took the time to express their opinion deserve to have their views noted. In the past, Health Canada has chosen to consolidate the views of vapers. For example, in the Youth Vaping consultation, 24,000 individual and personalized postcards were combined as one submission.

"Nicotine caps may not seem like a big deal, but to vapers they are. Many vapers start at high nicotine levels and wean themselves to lower levels over time. A wide range of options is critical. And, any restrictions would result in vapers going back to smoking," said Ms. Papaioannoy. "Isn't Health Canada interested in public health? Do they want vapers to go back to smoking? Do they want to prevent people who smoke cigarettes from switching to vaping?"

Nicotine caps represent one more infringement on a product that has helped thousands quit smoking. We believe that vapour products should be affordable, accessible and attractive to encourage as many smokers as possible to try them.

Vapour products are the best hope for hundreds of thousands of Canadians who smoke and are looking for an alternative to cigarettes. Just this week, Public Health England released its latest review of vapour studies. It found that "the best thing that a smoker can do is to stop smoking completely and the evidence shows that vaping is one of the most effective quit aids available, helping around 50,000 smokers quit a year."

"We call on Health Canada to include the voice of the Canadian vaper in this and any future regulatory process. We also call on Health Canada to be transparent in its approach, not follow a disastrous abstinence-only agenda, and seek rational and pragmatic options to reduce the 48,000 annual deaths the department attributes to cigarette smoking," said Ms. Papaioannoy. "Vaping is a proven, effective and safe tool for tobacco harm reduction."

About Rights4Vapers.com Rights4Vapers.com is an organization of vaping advocates dedicated to the advancement of Canadian based research on vaping. Dr. Chris Lalonde is an academic advisor. Rights4Vapers is the voice of Canadian adult vapers, 98 percent of whom are former smokers.

SOURCE Rights 4 Vapers