Already More Than 7000 Signatures Against Bill S-5 On Vaping

Vap Select President Sherwin Hal Edwards is waging war on Bill S-5 on vaping, which is well advanced in the adoption process as it will soon go to second reading in the House of Commons after it was passed in the Senate.

The entrepreneur launched a parliamentary petition last month (petition E-1237) on the Parliament of Canada website with the endorsement of a Bloc Québécois MP, Simon Marcil.

After just one month of being on-line and without much publicity other than word-of-mouth, the petition has already amassed more than 7,000 signatures, which ranks it among the 10 most popular parliamentary petitions right now in Canada.

As mentioned in a previous article (see here), Mr. Edwards believes that the current version of the bill is misguided in several respects:

• by willing to regulate vaping as tobacco and not as a category apart;

• by considering vaping as a product presenting health risks;

• by considering vaping as a product leading to smoking;

• by subjecting the sale of vaping products to vague standards of which little is known;

• by forcing producers of vaping products to submit their confidential list of ingredients which can then be made public;

• by obliging manufacturers to provide an array of irrelevant market research, sales data and other;

• by giving the government the right to change or amend product brands;

• by giving no indication of the packaging and display standards to which the products will be subjected and which will be determined subsequently by regulation;

• by very vaguely prohibiting any advertising “that could attract young people”;

• by prohibiting the use of any vaping brand on promotional material (t-shirts, caps, etc.);

• by stuffing the bill with undocumented references on the alleged health effects of vaping, whereas the said effects are not endorsed by any serious study;

• by giving Health Canada the authority to prohibit any product or vaping liquids if it is deemed that it could attract a young person, which opens the door to all sorts of abuses;

• by forbidding the claim that vaping could be a better health alternative than smoking, when it is its main benefit;

• by introducing significant restrictions when describing and presenting the flavors of a vaping product;

• by prohibiting the use of scientific studies to promote vaping’s benefits and/or safety;

• by imposing severe fines of up to $ 1 million and imprisonment terms for manufacturers who contravene the law.

In general, the government is accused of considering vaping not as a healthful alternative to smoking, but as a product as risky as tobacco, although this is clearly not the case.

The government thus deprives itself of a leading weapon in its war against tobacco use and most importantly, undermines a growing industry ready to substitute tobacco combustion for a much less damaging alternative.

Mr. Edwards is asking the government to make a major change to the current bill, namely to regulate vaping in a separate category that takes into account its unique characteristics and benefits as an alternative to tobacco.

Anyone who supports Mr. Edwards’ campaign can go online and sign the petition electronically by clicking HERE.