Flavoured tobacco products and candy – can you tell the difference?
Chocolate, cherry, peach, mint and vanilla are not the flavours of desserts I’m avoiding for my New Year’s resolution, but rather flavours of tobacco I want to see removed from the shelves in 2014.
We must say goodbye to the brightly packaged, highly addictive, candy-coated carcinogens.
We know youth are the biggest users of flavoured tobacco, but what may be surprising is that youth are also the biggest supporters of a provincial ban.
Recent polling reveals 81 per cent of B.C. teens ages 15 to 18 agree the provincial government should adopt legislation to ban all tobacco products with fruit and candy flavours.
An additional 74 per cent of B.C. adults (18-plus) also support a ban on flavoured products.
Flavoured tobacco products carry the same health risks and are just as addictive as regular tobacco products, though their candy-like packaging suggests otherwise.
What’s worse is that fruit, candy and menthol-flavoured products reduce the harsh experience of cigarette smoke, making it easier for youth who are experimenting with smoking to become addicted to tobacco.
Tobacco-use claims the lives of more than 6,000 British Columbians each year and it’s completely preventable.
This new year, it’s time for a change.
Help stop smoking before it starts by asking your local MLA and B.C.’s health minister to take action and create a provincial ban of all flavours of tobacco products
Wendy Stewart,
Vernon unit president
Canadian Cancer Society
