Health Canada was warned about effects of vaping over a year ago: expert

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – Health Canada is now warning people who use vaping products to seek medical attention promptly if they have concerns about their respiratory health but an expert says the regulator itself was warned about the risks more than a year ago.

Dr. Stanton Glantz is the director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California San Francisco, and has 40 years of researching tobacco under his belt.

“The important thing isn’t doing an accounting of the chemicals, it’s looking at the actual health effects. Juul is just as bad as a Marlboro Red,” he says. “The more we learn, the more dangerous they look.”

Glantz wrote Health Canada in September of 2018 to say vaping products should not be advertised as less harmful than cigarettes.

You can see his full, September 2018 letter, here: https://t.co/HkWIlzjBw5

— Ash Kelly (@AshDKelly) October 1, 2019

“The proposed List of Statements for Use in the Promotion of Vaping Products … will put the Government in Canada in the likely position of authorizing statements that mislead and harm the citizens of Canada,” the letter said.

Glantz says the benefits touted by the companies aren’t backed by actual evidence.

“Moreover, the cessation claims that are commonly made and which the Canadian government has been accepting, aren’t really supported by the evidence either,” he tells NEWS 1130.

Despite that warning, Health Canada only alerted the public to the issue in early September.

Health Canada does list the risks of vaping on a page that has been active since last summer, which includes this statement: “Some of these chemicals and contaminants are linked to negative health effects. However, the amount of chemicals and contaminants in vapour is normally at much lower levels than in cigarette smoke.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S. says more than 500 confirmed and probable cases of lung illnesses and nine deaths nationwide have been attributed to vaping.

Locally, a group seeking a class action against Juul in B.C.’s Supreme Court recently filed a case saying the company misrepresented the risks compared to smoking.

And Glantz wasn’t the only one sounding a warning in recent years. Physicians for a Smoke Free Canada has been asking the government for stricter enforcement to protect young people since 2017.

It says the government’s legislation favours tobacco companies when it should be taking a cautionary approach.

With files from the Associated Press

*Editor’s note: The article previously stated Health Canada only started alerting the public last week and has been updated to clarify the agency posted its warning in early September, 2019.