Businesses voice laundry list of concerns with Bill 174

Vapour products featured on display at Ice Blue Vapour in Belleville, Ontario. Photo by Jessica Clement.

By Jessica Clement

BELLEVILLE – The Ontario Liberal Government has struck fear into the vapour industry with purposed new legislation, Bill 174.

If the bill is passed in its current form, the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2015 and Electronic Cigarettes Act will be repealed and a new Smoke-Free Ontario Act will take their place, putting stricter regulations on vapour retailers in the province. 

“The changes that this bill would make would strip shops of their purpose,” said Trish Thompson, an employee at Ice Blue Vapour in Belleville.

The bill aims to have store owners treat the sale of vapour products the same as cigarettes. Display cases would be blacked out, with products stored out of sight and reach of customers until purchase. Additionally, staff members would no longer be allowed to provide any information on the merchandise. Informing customers about how to use or maintain units, along with recommendations about product or juice purchases would be prohibited. The legislation would also ban the sale of e-juice with certain flavouring. Ontario is the currently the only province purposing this ban.

According to Thompson, employees have extensive knowledge about products and safety concerns. She says they spend anywhere between 30 minutes to an hour with some customers, informing them on what goes into the products they are buying and how to properly handle the units.

Several vapour products and accessories currently on display to customers at Ice Blue Vapour. Photo by Jessica Clement.

Canada E-Juice reached out to QNet to provide information on the issue, saying in a written statement, “If the bill passed today in its current form it would not only affect the many vape shops in Ontario but more so the customers. When coming in to quit smoking, or even just upgrade your current hardware there is a considerable amount of ‘hands-on’. With the bill as it is, we would not be able to teach the basics of use and safety of the device to the customer. With quitting smoking, e-cigarettes are not a simple pick-up-and-use device. There are careful preparations that need to be attended to in order to have a quality vape experience. Even now, a lot of customers get easily frustrated with the units and require help. If we are not there to help they will go back to what they are familiar with and that, unfortunately, is using traditional tobacco.”

Boris Giller of the Canadian Vaping Association and co-founder of 180 Smoke in Toronto has been vocal about concerns that these changes have the potential to cripple businesses across Ontario. Giller told QNet that the passing of this bill could affect as many as 900,000 consumers in the province, as well as 4,000 employees in 800 shops.

Conservative MPP Todd Smith said his party has voiced these same concerns in the legislature, claiming these vapour regulations are “totally out of place” in a bill thats main purpose is to regulate cannabis.

Additionally, Thompson said the bill could add more fuel to the fire of an underground market that she claims is already a problem. The recent rise in popularity of vapour products has influenced some people to manufacture e-juices out of their own homes, often selling them to others at a discounted price.

These home-made juices ordinarily don’t undergo testing, are unlabelled and provide no list of ingredients which could include potentially harmful additives. Thompson said that removing flavours from stores will push more consumers to buy these unregulated and potentially dangerous products because, put simply: people want what they want.

“If the only way [consumers] are going to get their flavoured juice is to buy from someone mixing it in their living room, we can’t assume they won’t. Right now, people come to us because with us they know what is going into their juice. This bill will push a lot of these products to go underground, and no one wants that.”

Included in Canada E-Juice’s statement they said, “As it stands, we are NOT supporters of the ‘homemade juices’. It is for the safety of the customer and the industry that the juice is prepared in safe, controlled areas… The undercutting of the market is irrelevant, it all comes down to the safety of the consumers.”

Vapour products have grown exponentially in use both recreationally and as a controversial tool to quit smoking. Vaporizers mimic the smoking experience through heating and inhaling e-juice, which varies in ingredients but is usually composed of mainly propylene or vegetable glycerin based liquids combined with flavouring. It is up to the consumer how many milligrams of nicotine, if any at all, they want in their juice. There are currently hundreds of flavours on the market to choose from.

In recent years, and still now, vaporizers have stirred up great debate among public health advocates, governments and media outlets, as there are no long-term studies detailing the health effects of repeated use of these products. A large number of earlier generation e-juices alarmed vapers and health officials when it was revealed that they included harmful ingredients such as diacetyl, acetyl propionyl, and acetoin. The continual inhalation of diacetyl, in particular, is known to cause bronchiolitis obliterates, commonly known as ‘popcorn lung’.

Many brands of e-juice have since eliminated additives such as diacetyl and go through independent testing, as well voluntary inspections by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency before hitting store shelves.

Age restriction sign currently posted on the door of Ice Blue Vapour. Photo by Jessica Clement.

As of now, it is illegal to sell vapour products to anyone under the age of 19 in Ontario. Vapour exclusive shops such as Ice Blue Vapour are required to post signs that explain this regulation and I.D. any customers who could possibly be under the legal age. Thompson said these shops also refuse to sell to customers who they suspect are purchasing products for someone underage.

“I don’t mind complying with rules and regulations that keep dangerous products out of the hands of minors, but a lot of those regulations are already in place. I do have a problem with this bill keeping these products out of the hands of the people who need it,” Thompson said.

Eric Hoskins, the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, said in an interview with Global News that this bill’s main purpose is to affect the sale of vapour products in convenience stores across the province who have customers of all ages. However, the regulations would carry over to specialty shops who do have age restrictions.

QNet spoke to someone from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, but they were unable to answer questions about the legislation before deadline.