New Provincial Laws Restricting Vape Sales Take Effect on July 1 to Curb Youth Vaping
Written by Communications, June 30, 2020
Regulations Limit Youth Access to Flavoured and High-Nicotine Products
Peterborough Public Health is preparing to enforce new provincial laws restricting the sale of vaping products that take effect July 1, 2020. On that date, amendments to the Smoke-Free Ontario Act come into force that include the following regulations:
- The sale of flavoured vapour products will be restricted to specialty vape stores and licensed cannabis retail stores. Convenience stores can only sell tobacco, menthol and mint flavoured vapour products;
- The sale of vapour products with high nicotine concentrations (greater than 20 mg/ml) will be restricted to specialty vape stores.
- Specialty vape stores will no longer be permitted to have indoor displays and promotions that are visible from outside their stores.
These changes are part of the Ontario government’s efforts to curb youth vaping and are enforced by local public health agencies across the province.
“As with any new change in regulations, our initial focus will be to ensure that all locations selling vapes are aware of the new regulations and work with them to remove product where it is no longer allowed,” explained Donna Churipuy, Director of Public Health Programs. “Ensuring compliance with these new rules is an important part of the overall public health strategy to discourage youth and non-users of tobacco from using vaping products.”
In 2019, Health Canada conducted national inspections across Canada to check vendor compliance with federal vaping regulations and found:
- One or more illegal activities were observed in 84% of vaping stores and in 13% of convenience stores
- Illegal promotions were found in 60% of the vaping stores and 4% of the convenience stores
- Prohibited flavour names in were found in 59% of vaping stores and 4% of convenience stores
- Non-child resistant packages were found in 1% of the vaping stores
Reports from July-September and October-December of these 2019 national inspections indicated that eight local vendors within the Peterborough Public Health jurisdiction were non-compliant.
A local survey conducted by Peterborough Public Health in 2019 found that 85% of the population do not smoke, and that support for smoke and vape-free outdoor spaces is universal.
Any person using who sees people smoking, vaping or using cannabis within smoke-free areas may report a violation by phoning the Tobacco Enforcement Officers at 705-743-1000 or reporting the offence online at www.peterboroughpublichealth.ca/sfoa.
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For further information, please contact:
Brittany Cadence
Communications Manager
705-743-1000, ext. 391