Nearly a quarter of Canadian high school students said they had vaped in the past month.

The widespread availability of flavored e-cigarettes is exacerbating a growing crisis over the lack of action by the federal government, experts say, as new national data shows that Canadian teenagers regularly use e-cigarettes. serious crisis.

The latest results from Health Canada’s Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey, which surveyed 61,096 youth in grades 7 to 12 in nine provinces between September 2021 and June 2022, found that 29 per cent of Canadian students have tried e-cigarettes.

That figure fell slightly in Canada overall, down from 34 per cent in the 2018-19 school year, but was higher among older groups — 41 per cent of students in grades 10 to 12 had ever vaped.

Regular vaping is also common in Canada, with 17 per cent of students using e-cigarettes in the past month, down slightly from 20 per cent in the 2018-19 school year but up again by 12 among students in grades 10 to 19, to more than 24 % of users are monthly users.

Daily vaping was 8 per cent of all students surveyed, and nearly 12 per cent of students in grades 10 to 12 — experts say one of the highest ever recorded globally.

David Hammond, a professor of public health at the University of Waterloo and a researcher on youth vaping in Canada, said: “The data confirms that Canada has one of the highest rates of youth vaping in the world, especially in relation to daily vaping.

 “We’ve basically plateaued at an all-time high in daily vaping … and that’s probably the best sign that we’re in for a long-term, regular vaping phase — we’ve crossed the threshold of becoming a fad.” 

Canadian teen vaping rates unacceptably high

The figure is up from five years ago, when only 10% of students had used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days, and 11% reported using e-cigarettes daily in 2016-2017 – pointing to a growing problem, with no vaping Signs of slowing down.

The new youth vaping survey data also partially predates the widespread availability of disposable e-cigarettes, which come on the market last year, come preloaded with thousands of puffs, require no refills or cartridges, and have been linked to a surge in youth vaping.

Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society, said: “We are very concerned about the long-term issue that youth vaping rates remain high — unacceptably high.

“We need immediate federal action to ban flavored e-cigarettes, which is a contributing factor to these high rates.”

When asked which flavor they preferred, the survey showed that 63 percent of 7th to 12th graders who had vaped in the past month used fruit flavors most often.

“There’s no doubt that flavors are a big part of teen vaping – they’re appealing to kids, it’s one of the reasons they start trying vaping in the first place, and fruit flavors and candy flavors are a big part of that ’” said Hammond.

“The main reason adults vape is to help them quit or not die from smoking – and flavor has a much larger relative impact on youth vaping than adults.”

In contrast, teen smoking rates in Canada continue to decline significantly — only 14 percent of Canadian high school students report ever smoking, down from 19 percent in 2018-19, and only 1 percent smoke daily.

“Over time, we’ve seen a reduction in youth smoking. This is because of high taxes, high prices, plain packaging and menthol bans,” Cunningham said.

“But unfortunately, when you include smoking and vaping, the overall use of nicotine is on the rise … We have a huge problem, a new generation is getting addicted to nicotine, and we need the government to act now on this respond.”

Health Canada stands by on youth vaping

The federal government in June 2021 sounded the alarm about the rapid increase in vaping among Canadian youth and proposed changes to the Tobacco and Vaping Products Act to regulate the sale of desirable flavors, driving the increase in youth vaping .

But two years later, as experts point out, Canada still has one of the highest rates of teenage vaping in the world and has done little at the national level to regulate flavors.

“Health Canada is aware and very concerned about the high rate of vaping among Canadian youth,” a spokesperson said in an emailed statement to CBC News.

He added that they were still reviewing feedback from a public consultation on flavored e-cigarettes that ends in September 2021. .

E-cigarettes have long been touted as an effective way to quit smoking, but e-cigarettes have never been approved as a smoking cessation aid in Canada.

The federal government’s proposed restrictions on vaping flavors — such as cereal milk, cotton candy, unicorn milk and dragon’s blood — are expected to help make vaping products less attractive to young people while still getting adults to try to quit smoking some. Flavor selection.

But experts and health advocates say Health Canada appears to be shelving the proposal, moving away from further regulation of flavors that appeal to youth, leaving it to industry and provinces to act.

In the absence of national regulations, multiple territories and provinces have moved, with the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Quebec now banning the sale of most flavored e-cigarettes , to curb teenage e-cigarette use.

Health Canada did have new regulations on the amount of nicotine allowed in e-cigarettes, setting a maximum concentration of nicotine at 20 milligrams per milliliter as of July 2021. But it doesn’t enforce any regulations on taste.

“The reason we don’t see much lower rates of e-cigarette use in these provinces is that the flavor restrictions don’t have any impact on their use,” said Cynthia Callard, executive director of Doctors Tobacco Free Canada.

“Provincial restrictions will only be effective if federal action is taken … It is deeply troubling that Health Canada is effectively standing by while this problem persists.”