Health committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you very much for the invitation. I didn't realize that there was such an impressive assembly. Good morning. I will be giving my presentation in English, but I believe simultaneous interpretation is available. I was told I was the only spea

Health committee  Very few studies have been done because it is such a fast-changing area. A doctor in New Zealand, Dr. Bullen, conducted a study that showed that e-cigarettes were as effective as nicotine replacement therapy. What we're seeing two or three years down the line with nicotine replac

Health committee  Many people are able to quit cold turkey, in other words, overnight without any medication. Patients are asked whether they smoke, and they say no. They are then asked whether they used to smoke, and if so, how long ago they quit. These types of smokers tell us that they quit ove

Health committee  That is precisely why regulations are needed. Licensed stores with staff who are very familiar with the products should be allowed to sell e-cigarettes. Health Canada should conduct a check to confirm that the store is selling high-quality products that work properly. People ar

Health committee  I quite like the comment that a movie star made when she was being interviewed in a studio in New York. The interviewer asked her whether the substance she was breathing out was harmful. She answered, “I'm only humidifying your studio, sir”.

Health committee  You mean vaping.

Health committee  I would be lying if I said I wasn't somewhat concerned about that. That is why e-cigarettes should not be sold to anyone under the age of 18. Young people must not be encouraged to become addicted to nicotine. We would not tell a patient to drink beer or to drive their car at 150

Health committee  There is an important point I would like to make about that. Not medicalizing e-cigarettes is critical. It's hard enough for a patient to get an appointment with their doctor. So I think it would be a mistake to force people to go to their doctors to get a prescription for an e-c

Health committee  Thank you.

Health committee  Yes.

Health committee  Yes, or harm reduction, both.

Health committee  Yes. Again, we need to have some retrospective long-term studies to show that using the electronic cigarette does not lead to a relapse to tobacco. We don't have any evidence for this, and if we look at the European literature, the European experience, it hasn't been so.

Health committee  No. I think Poland is probably the only country that has reported such a thing. But if you look at the French experience, the Scandinavian experience, the British experience, which is extremely well documented, this hasn't been their experience.

Health committee  Again, when you see a smoker, of course you evaluate him and you ask him how many cigarettes he smokes. To give you a proper idea of the number of cigarettes he smokes, we measure his alveolar CO. If somebody comes out of the clinic with CO of 12 ppm or 18 ppm he will not be give

Health committee  Well, of course, in our experience we use it to help people to stop smoking and for harm reduction. But again, tobacco cigarettes have been on the market for years and no new government has ever been able to ban the sale of these cigarettes. I think that nobody thinks it's going