Canada’s teen vaping rates highest in world, data shows, leading to growing crisis

Teenager vaping representational image by Frmm Agency on Unsplash

Toronto/CMEDIA: With new national data showing the number of Canadian teenagers regularly using e-cigarettes to be the highest in the world, a lack of action by the federal government experts and the widespread availability of flavoured vapes is leading to a growing crisis. 

Health Canada’s Canadian Student Tobacco, Alcohol and Drugs Survey’s latest results surveyed 61,096 teenagers in grades 7 to 12 from nine provinces between September 2021 and June 2022, found that 29 percent of Canadian students had ever tried an e-cigarette. 

Although that number is down from 34 percent in 2018-19, but higher in older age groups, with 41 percent of students in grades 10 to 12 ever having vaped.

Widespread availability of disposable vapes with  thousands of pre-loaded puffs, which don’t require refilling or cartridges are linked to a surge in youth vaping. new youth vaping survey data showed. 

Daily vaping rates across all students surveyed were eight percent and nearly 12 percent among those in grades 10 to 12, which according to experts are some of the highest ever reported globally. 

“We’re very concerned by the long-term issue that e-cigarette use by teenagers continues to be very high — unacceptably high,” Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society was reported to say and added,

“And we need the federal government to move immediately to ban flavoured e-cigarettes, a factor that is contributing to these high rates.”

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