2019 has been a year of constant media/advertising and government attack against vapers and smokers as one new study has prompted regulatory action both in Canada and the US over what's been called a "youth epidemic". At Theravape, and in our industry in general, we take youth uptake very seriously and put measures in place to prevent it wherever possible, so of course we took a closer look to see what was happening. When looking at the numbers more closely though, it's difficult to see anything resembling an epidemic, where only 1% of youth surveyed are reporting daily use.
In the 5.5 year period between January 2013 and August 2018 in Canada, vaping has had a grand total of 32 reported incidents related to unintentional injuries and poisonings, which is less than 6 incidents per year across the country. 78% were caused by preventable nicotine ingestions (please just keep nicotine out of reach/sight of children to fix this), 9% were caused by device failures which are almost always caused by specialty device user error (mech mod users vs basic battery safety), and the remaining 12% had another type of injury or NO injury detected at all.
Compare this against youth alcohol consumption which affected 39.5% of students between grades 7-12 in Canada (2014). Alcohol is proven to cause far more harm ($14.6 billion in costs and 4258 Canadian deaths in 2002) and is very well known to be addictive, but this isn't being called an epidemic despite the incredible adverse impact it has on Canadian youth.
Vaping is aimed at reducing the number of Canadians that smoke. Currently, smoking is causing $6.5 billion dollars in healthcare costs and 45,000 deaths per year in Canada. Current evidence shows us that vaping is at least 95% safer than tobacco and its reason for being is to end tobacco usage, so it begs the question; why is government aggressively trying to regulate a powerful harm reduction product like vaping out of existence in North America?
We'd like to hear your thoughts on this, but more importantly, we'd like you to convey your thoughts to Health Canada. The following link takes you to the current issue of the Canada Gazette that may impact our industry and the products you're able to purchase: http://gazette.gc.ca/rp-pr/p1/2019/2019-06-22/html/reg4-eng.html
It's a long read, but worthwhile if you value our freedom to access vaping products such as you do today. Of note is the proposal that all vaping tanks be certified child resistant, which will eliminate almost 100% of the tanks available in Canada today, leaving you with almost nothing for options. You can reply with your thoughts and concerns to Rob Graham, Consumer Product Safety Directorate, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Health Canada, Address Locator: 4908B, 269 Laurier Avenue West, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0K9 (fax: 613‑952‑2551; email: rob.graham@canada.ca). You must reply by August 20, 2019. Thank you for caring to make a difference for all Canadian smokers and vapers.
The TheraVape Team.