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Dr. Hassan Mir, a cardiologist who works at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, said some young people he encounters vape the nicotine equivalent of 100 cigarettes a day.Dave Chan/The Globe and Mail
At an Ottawa clinic designed to help patients stop vaping, Hassan Mir, a cardiologist, sees many young people who wish they’d never started to begin with.
Some are so heavily addicted, Dr. Mir said, they vape the nicotine equivalent of 100 cigarettes a day.
“These are actual stories that we hear every day: kids waking up in the middle of the night, attached to the e-cigarette, having to wake up just to take a hit, because they’re that addicted,” he said. “They’re starting to get withdrawal symptoms in the middle of the night.”
Studies and clinical experience highlight how young people are drawn to vaping products because of the flavours, such as candy and chocolate, said Dr. Mir, who works at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and is also an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa.
Dr. Mir and public-health colleagues are calling on the Carney government to immediately enact proposed regulations first published five years ago and opened to consultation.
At the time, Health Canada said the proposal would restrict flavour options in vaping products to tobacco and mint/menthol, adding the move would make vaping less attractive to youth. However, finalized regulations were never approved by the federal cabinet.
Health experts say harms from vaping products are preventable and the research is clear: flavour entices youth to use e-cigarettes and a new generation is becoming addicted to nicotine.
New research published by the University of Alberta this month found that vaping is causing lung and cardiovascular damage in young adults.
“People shouldn’t be coming to me for support after they’ve been addicted at the age of 20, or at the age of 15, or at the age of 10,” Dr. Mir said.
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Les Hagen, executive director of advocacy group Action on Smoking & Health, said in a statement timed in conjunction with the five-year anniversary of the government publishing its proposal that Ottawa must act.
“It’s been five long years, five health ministers and five broken promises,” he said.
Flory Doucas, co-director and spokesperson of the Quebec Coalition for Tobacco Control, also urged Prime Minister Mark Carney “to step up and provide Canadian youth with the protection they deserve.”
“We urge the Prime Minister to champion this regulation and stand up to the tobacco and vaping companies – as he said he would,” she said, referencing a 2025 Liberal election campaign pledge to act to curb youth vaping.
Earlier this year, a coalition of national health organizations and experts, including the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Nurses Association, sent a letter to Mr. Carney and federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel stating concern about the “ongoing youth vaping crisis in Canada.”
“We are worried about the lack of action on vape flavours from the federal government since the first draft of vape flavour regulations was published for consultation in June 2021,” the letter said.
“Since June 2021, a vast number of youth have been exposed to, and enticed by, flavoured vaping products.”
The letter said vaping exposes youth to a host of health harms, including respiratory illnesses and increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. The federal government must finalize and publish regulations to restrict e-cigarette flavours, it added.
The letter also outlined how Canada has extremely high youth vaping rates, noting 27 per cent of Grade 12 students vape, according to the 2023-24 Canadian Student Alcohol and Drugs Survey.
Alexandre Bergeron, a spokesperson for Ms. Michel, said in a statement the government remains committed to preventing youth vaping. “We continue to work with our partners and stakeholders, including our provincial and territorial counterparts, to better protect the health of Canadians,” he said.
Mr. Hagen agrees provincial and territorial governments are key to the effort to reduce nicotine use. Six Canadian provinces currently restrict the sale of flavoured e-cigarettes.
However, Mr. Hagen said there would be a greater if impact if flavoured vaping products could not be sent by mail to jurisdictions that bar retailers from selling the products.
“That can only be achieved under a federal ban.”