|
It is a troubling, but extremely effective marketing trick that attracts thousands of Saskatchewan teenagers to experiment with tobacco. We refer to flavoured products developed by tobacco companies. These tobacco products that are used by 61% of young smokers aged 15-19 in this province. Saskatchewan recently reported the highest rate of youth smoking in Canada for the 10th year in a row, flavoured tobacco has become a new important point of worries for anti-smoking advocates. Flavoured tobacco looks like the gateway drug that will attract some young people and lead them into long-term use of cigarettes and other tobacco products that could lead to serious adult diseases and potentially shorten their lives. At first sight, flavoured tobacco products look more like boxes of candy than the menthol cigarettes, water pipe tobacco and smokeless tobacco they contain. And as Canadian Cancer Society spokesperson Donna Pasiechnik notes, flavours of grape, chocolate, cherry and citrus make them attractive to a young person. Certainly tobacco companies will deny that they are targeting impressionable youth with these products, but if that is the case, why not discard the enticing flavours and packaging? The challenge for Saskatchewan and other jurisdictions concerned about flavoured tobacco products is how to effectively deal with them. To Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst for the Canadian Cancer Society, the solution is clear. They consider that federal and provincial governments should ban all flavoured tobacco products. It is a message endorsed by the Lung Association of Saskatchewan and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. Though some U.S. jurisdictions, like New York City, have banned flavoured tobacco sales and the issue is a tricky one. Tobacco companies will look for loopholes in any such legislation and court challenges might also result. It is also impossible to stop tobacco products moving across provincial borders. Tim Macaulay, director of environmental health with Saskatchewan's Ministry of Health, says that legislation is just one part of the solution. Education and other tools are also needed. While the Saskatchewan government should take a close look at all legislative options on flavoured tobacco, we'd like to see equal consideration given to strengthening and enforcing existing laws on tobacco sales and use.
Related Articles -
smoking, Canada, Sask,
| 
