Ottawa bus ad demands action on youth vaping

A new bus shelter ad unveiled across Ottawa draws attention to the concerning rise in the number of young people who are using e-cigarettes and other vape products.

Using data from the Government of Canada, a coalition of health groups predict approximately 50,000 high school students have begun vaping since May 13, 2025.

Tobacco use has been on a steady decline over the past five decades. Data from the University of Waterloo shows that nearly 40 per cent of women and over 60 per cent of men smoked cigarettes in 1965. This has decreased to less than 15 per cent by 2020.

Gen Z almost became the generation to nix the smoking habit for good … until vapes hit the market.

Initially pitched as a product to help wean smokers off cigarettes, vapes have hit the ground running since first hitting the market around 2006.

But it is the colourful packaging and alluring flavours that are marketed to young people.

“Flavours are a key factor in attracting young people to nicotine products,” Dr Hassan Mir, a cardiologist at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and assistant professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, said in a press release. “Most youth use e-cigarettes beginning with a flavoured variety. The government must recognize that by allowing fruit and minty flavours in vaping products, it is helping a predatory industry addict youth to nicotine.”

Canada began implementing restrictions on flavours in tobacco products in 2009 when the federal government banned the use of several additives in cigarettes, blunt wrappers and small cigars. This included flavouring agents with the exception of menthol.

In November 2018, menthol was banned in all tobacco products across Canada.

But Canadian legislation does not always define e-cigarettes as tobacco products, therefore bans on flavours do not apply to vaping products. The only exemption is in Nova Scotia, which removed the exemption on its flavour ban for e-cigarettes in April 2020.

“Over the past eight years, parents, teachers and health professionals have struggled to protect kids from the predatory tactics of the nicotine and tobacco industries,” Les Hagen, executive director of Action on Smoking & Health (ASH Canada), said in a press release. “It is high time for the federal government to stand up to Big Tobacco and Big Nicotine and protect Canada’s youth.”

In 2021, Canada proposed an order to amend regulations surrounding tobacco and vaping products, with the intent to “contribute to making these products less
appealing to youth, which would help address the rapid rise in youth vaping.”

The draft order would limit flavourings in vaping products to mint and menthol and would prohibit all sugars and sweeteners.

But despite five years on the table, the draft regulations have yet to be finalized.

The coalition of health groups is now calling on federal Health Minister Marjorie Michel to take a step forward to regulate the industry and protect the hea;th of young Canadians.

“While we fully acknowledge that Minister Michel inherited the youth vaping crisis from the previous government, she has now been in office for close to a year,” Cynthia Callard, a spokesperson for Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada, said in a press release. “At this point, her inaction is perpetuating the crisis, with another fifty thousand teenagers who started vaping since she took office.”