New Health Canada rules take aim at the ‘Wild West’ of vaping

Health Canada will soon have a better picture of what vape products a big sellers and what they're made of now that retailers and manufacturers need to submit regular reports.

Health Canada will soon have a clearer look into the haze of Canadian vaping habits as new reporting requirements for retailers and manufacturers aim to tackle what some call a “Wild West.”

Under new regulations passed in June, businesses now must submit semiannual sales figures and ingredient lists to Health Canada, with the first reports due at the end of this year. The main goals of these reports are to get a better understanding of what vaping product are popular, especially among youth, and identifying the specific ingredients being inhaled by users.

“The vaping landscape in Canada has for some time been a bit of a Wild West, if you will,” said Sarah Butson, policy analyst with the Canadian Lung Association.

“It is really critical that Health Canada put in place these regulations to get a sense of the scope of the products that are out there in terms of sales, but also importantly in terms of ingredients.”

The first ingredient and sales reports are due in December 31 for all Canadian vape retailers and manufacturers.

The new regulations comes after vaping and related health issues have been in the news over recent years.

A 2015 Harvard study found the flavouring chemical, diacetyl, was found in more than 75 per cent of tested e-cigarette liquids. This chemical was linked to the chronic lung disease bronchiolitis obliterans – better known as “popcorn lung.”

The revelation spurred international headlines after a Canadian teen who vaped developed similar symptoms in 2019, though a 2021 Health Canada study found diacetyl in two samples of vaping liquid out of more than 800 of those sold in Canada that were examined.