The explosion of e-cigarettes has created a regulatory grey area for Flin Flon and municipalities across Canada.
But now the Manitoba government is looking to step in to restrict the use of the vapour-spewing devices.
Healthy Living Minister Deanne Crothers couldn’t say when it will happen, but legislation is to set uniform rules as to where e-cigarettes can be used.
“I think it’s just fair that we create some legislation so that everybody is following the same rules,” Crothers told the Winnipeg Free Press last week.
“We are looking at similar handling of e-cigarettes as we have with tobacco, but it’s not a done deal yet.”
Some Manitoba businesses have already banned the use of e-cigarettes on their property. The province’s largest school division, Winnipeg School Division, has followed suit.
Trustee Trish Sattelberger, chair of the Flin Flon school board, said she has not heard concerns about the devices.
“We don’t have any policy around it but I don’t know that it’s ever been an issue in the schools,” she said at Tuesday’s board meeting.
In a Reminder interview last fall, city councillor Bill Hanson said that in the absence of provincial rules the city would have to look at whether to regulate e-cigarettes.
E-cigarettes are battery-operated devices that often look like traditional cigarettes. They turn chemicals into a vapour that can be inhaled.
Frequently the chemical used in an e-cigarette includes nicotine, the addictive substance in tobacco. The devices come in refillable and disposable models.
Users of e-cigarettes are not said to “smoke,” but to “vape.” From a regulatory point of view, the focus has been not so much on whether vaping is risky, but whether second-hand vape poses health risks to bystanders.
Though a World Health Organization report released last year raised concern around second-hand vape, it also found there is insufficient evidence to determine whether it is unsafe.
