Brett Bostick, co-owner of Vaping the Way, demonstrates an e-cigarette. BRYAN SCHLOSSER / Regina Leader-Post While many use electronic cigarettes as an alternative to smoking, pharmacist Jenna Anderson believes flavoured vaporizers could be a gateway to nicotine dependency. She points to a Canadian Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey done in 2013 that asked respondents about the nicotine content in e-cigarettes. Anderson noted that 19 per cent didn’t know if nicotine was in the product or not. “That’s concerning because you’re now exposing people who didn’t have previous nicotine dependency to nicotine, so you’re increasing that risk of dependency, and therefore it’s reasonable that you could consider those products a gateway to smoking,” Anderson said. As a PACT pharmacist (Partnership to Assist with Cessation of Tobacco) at a Safeway pharmacy in Saskatoon, Anderson is trained to help people quit smoking. Given the many unknowns about vaping, including its effectiveness as a cessation tool and potential long-term side effects, she thinks it should be regulated. “We need some clear guidance on these products,” Anderson said. Health Canada has not approved e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid and there is no quality control. “When they’ve done samples, they’ve found heavy metals, formaldehyde, proplyene glycol and so there are concerns that those compounds could have health effects that we’re not aware of yet,” Anderson said. She encourages patients who are trying to quit smoking to use regulated cessation methods such as nicotine replacement products, prescriptions or behavioural strategies. “There are tons of other ways to quit that have a lot of sound evidence to support their use,” Anderson said. “Any health-care professional I’ve ever spoken with about this topic really encourages people to use the traditional cessation products that we have.” Brett Bostick, co-owner of Vaping the Way in Regina, hasn’t seen any reports that correlate health concerns with e-cigarettes. “When you think about it, there are 600 ingredients in a cigarette and so many are cancer-causing,” he said. “In an e-cigarette, there’s only four ingredients — two of them are oils, one is nicotine and one is flavouring. If they’re smoking, switching to an e-cigarette is definitely the better alternative.” Dr. Mark Brown, president of the Saskatchewan Medical Association, is concerned about the large number of young Saskatchewan residents starting to smoke. He wants legislation to ban flavoured tobacco and regulations around e-cigarettes and vaping. “I wouldn’t recommend someone just pick it up and just start with an e-cigarette if they’ve never smoked before — then you’re going the wrong way because they are meant for people who want to quit smoking,” Bostick said. He agrees there should be legislation prohibiting minors from purchasing e-cigarettes, but added: “I think they’d be going a little too far if you can’t display your products inside the shop.” The Pharmacy Association of Saskatchewan doesn’t have an official position on regulating electronic cigarettes, said Dawn Martin, the association’s CEO. But she added: “I don’t think that inhaling anything into your lungs is necessarily a good thing, but I don’t have a lot of data on that … I certainly wouldn’t be telling my teenage kids that that’s a OK substitution for smoking.” [email protected]
I don't deny that. Vaping products are based on nicotine. So, if you consume it and don't even think of doing that in moderation... yeah, you can get addicted pretty fast.
Hard to dispute that considering the nicotine content of some juices and blends. Nicotine is highly addicting and I wouldn't suggest those that have never smoked to start vaping. You could easily get addicted to nicotine through vaping.
