Flavoured tobacco & youth

The impact of flavoured tobacco on youth in Ontario is the latest target of the province’s NDP health critic.

France Gelinas announced she’s introducing a bill that will ban all flavoured tobacco products. She was involved in a bill that banned candy-flavoured cigars known as cigarillos back in 2008. But she says tobacco companies were quick to react, and find new ways to entice new and young customers.

“They knew that flavoured cigarello was a good way to develop the next generation of smokers. If you look at some of the new products, those, if there are any parents that find those in their kids’ backpacks, would think that they are candy.”

Health minister Deb Matthews says she’s open to the idea. “We’ve made a really strong commitment to decreasing smoking rates and we’ve seen some remarkable success, a 25 percent reduction in the number of people smoking.”

A youth smoking survey in 2008 and 2009 found 21 percent of Ontario youth from grades nine to twelve had tried flavoured tobacco products.

Video: Gelinas & Matthews comment: