Quebec Targets E-Cigarettes, Smoking On Patios

Source from:  The Canadian Press 05/06/2015

MONTREAL - Ten years after it prohibited smoking in bars and restaurants, Quebec has introduced sweeping legislation that would extend the ban to patios and subject increasingly popular e-cigarettes to the same rules as other tobacco products.

Flavoured tobacco would also be outlawed as would smoking in a vehicle if someone under 16 is present.

"We know that tobacco is the worst product that you can take," junior health minister Lucie Charlebois said Tuesday after tabling the legislation.

"I saw my father die of lung cancer because he was smoking too much. I don't have to explain to you how horrible it was.

"We want to be the leaders in Canada and around the world in terms of less prevalence of tobacco."

If it becomes law, Bill 44 would see e-cigarettes prohibited inside institutions and public buildings.

The bill seeks to prohibit the sale of all tobacco products having a flavour or aroma, including menthol cigarettes and cigarillos. Electronic cigarettes are exempt because they're used by smokers seeking to end their addiction.

"I do not want to take away the opportunity for people to use this product to quit smoking," said Charlebois, herself an ex-smoker.

The province also wants to ban smoking on bar and restaurant patios and within nine metres of a public building - unless that distance leaves smokers on the street.

Bill 44 will be subject to extensive consultations and Charlebois said she doesn't know when it might become law.

Anti-tobacco groups say the tightening of the province's tobacco legislation is long overdue, with the previous changes coming in 2005.

"When we initially adopted the Tobacco Act in 1998, we were under the impression this (revision) would be a regular process," said Francois Damphousse, Quebec director of the Non-Smokers' Rights Association.

"It's been 10 years since the last one, so we have to give credit to Lucie Charlebois for finally delivering and bringing it up to date."

Damphousse said the timing is important given that Nova Scotia and Ontario are also getting ready to introduce new rules on flavoured tobacco products.

Groups say they'd like to see Quebec go further and introduce plain packaging for cigarettes. Currently, only Australia has the generic, logo-free packaging, but Damphousse says other countries are mulling it.

"We're just hoping the minister will be open still to other suggestions," he said.

Charlebois said 22 per cent of Quebecers smoke, a rate she suggested has remained stable for a few years.

"Ultimately, what we're hoping for is a smoke-free Quebec," she said.

Mario Bujold, head of the Quebec Council on Tobacco and Health, said he's happy to see e-cigarettes being subjected to regulations.

"By including e-cigarettes in the tobacco act, we know that many teenagers use e-cigarettes and it needed to be more regulated and it wasn't at all," said Bujold.

Charlebois said studies on electronic cigarettes are in their infancy and don't allow for definitive conclusions.

The idea is not to try to ban the e-cigarettes, which are used as a way to stop smoking. But from a public health perspective, the government believes they should be subject to more stringent rules.

"What we are trying to do in the bill is protect young people, reduce the level of initiation to smoking," Charlebois said. "We're trying to make sure that people who used to smoke, like myself, don't get the urge to start again."

Back in 2005 when the Liberal government banned smoking in bars, the health minister was Philippe Couillard, the current premier.

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Close 15 Undeniable Facts About Smoking of ??
Every cigarette you smoke reduces your expected life span by 11 minutes.

There are roughly 10 million adults who smoke cigarettes in Great Britain.

Two-thirds of smokers start before the age 18.

The proportion of the population who are smokers has decreased since the 1970s. A sixth of the population smoke now, in comparison to nearly half of the adult population smoking in 1974.

More men smoke than women. In Great Britain, 22% of adult men and 19% of adult women are smokers.

More than half (59%) of all adults report that they have never smoked.

Tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemical compounds including: carbon monoxide, arsenic, formaldehyde, cyanide, benzene, toluene and acrolein.

Smoking poses a huge risk to your cardiovascular system. It also steals some of your good cholesterol, increases the risk of clotting and temporarily raises your blood pressure.

Immediately after you quit smoking, your lungs and other smoke-damaged organs start to repair themselves.

Smoking is England's biggest killer. Half of all regular cigarette smokers will eventually be killed by their addiction.

100,000 smokers in the UK die every year from smoking related causes.

In 2012-13 the Government earned ￡12.3 billion in revenue from tobacco tax.

Usage of electronic cigarettes has tripled in the past two years. 2.1 million adults in Great Britain now use them.

A report by Dr Robert West of University College London found that e-cigarette use from popular brands is expected to be at least 20 times safer (and probably considerably more so) than smoking tobacco cigarettes.

7.9% of smokers have kicked the habit in the past year.