Vaping: A valuable harm reduction tool or a public health concern? Experts weigh in – Healthy Debate

As plumes of cotton candy and strawberry ice cream-scented clouds fill the air, the heated debate over vaping regulation in Canada wages on.

The popularity of nicotine vapes, or e-cigarettes, continues to rise, but so too do questions of whether vape uptake is a positive sign of changing times or a new public health concern hooking a younger generation to nicotine.

One Health Canada survey found that youth smoking rates have decreased from 5 to 3 per cent from 2019 to 2020. However, Canada has some of the highest rates of teen vape use in the world, with one 2023 survey showing that nearly a third of teens Grade 7 to 12 had tried vaping.

Since vaping became legal in Canada in 2018, markets have been flooded with new products. Several studies have concluded that vaping does appear to be less harmful than smoking tobacco, but that it is still not without its own health risks.

Vaping certain fruit-flavoured e-cigarette fluids has previously been shown to produce dangerous compounds called volatile carbonyls from the heating process. These compounds are known to have health implications for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cardiovascular disease and cancers.

A recent study co-authored by Donal O’Shea, professor at the RCSI University of  Medicine and Health Science in Dublin, used AI to analyze the chemical compounds of 180 different vape flavours when heated. It found that vapes produce 127 “acutely toxic” chemicals, 153 “health hazards” and 225 “irritants.”

Further, many experts have warned of the still unknown long-term effects of e-cigarette use.

In June 2021, the federal government released draft regulations that would ban most flavours of e-cigarette fluids except tobacco, mint and menthol. However, these flavour bans have yet to be put into effect.

Provincially, Quebec, New Brunswick, P.E.I., Nova Scotia, Nunavut and the Northwest Territories have all prohibited the sale of flavoured vape products, with Manitoba recently considering the same.

In the U.S., the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first menthol flavoured vaping products at the end of June. An official with the FDA, Matthew Farrelly, said in a statement that the agency had “concluded that the benefit of adult smokers” switching to e-cigarettes “was sufficient to outweigh the risks to youth.”

On July 1, the Canadian government introduced a tax on vaping products that increases the cost of a vape pod between 12 and 24 cents.

But while regulations, taxes and restrictions are debated in Parliament, advocates say these measures are misguided. Some proponents of vaping as an alternative to tobacco say that limiting flavours and increasing taxes would be a step backward, forcing would-be tobacco smokers to return to a more harmful alternative.

Some critics have accused the federal government of “sitting on its hands” when it comes to youth vaping. But vapes also have arguably done some real good, particularly for those who have been able to completely quit tobacco.

So, what is Canada to do? Does vaping pose a legitimate public health threat or is it a far safer alternative for those who would otherwise be vulnerable to the known harms of cigarettes?