Evidence of meeting #25 for Health in the 40th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was products.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:10 p.m.
Bloc
Nicolas Dufour Bloc Repentigny, QC
I must admit that I agree entirely with this amendment.
I would like to know the difference between regular and smokeless tobacco.
5:10 p.m.
Senior Policy Analyst, National Public Issues Office, Canadian Cancer Society
They are two different product categories. I do not smoke, so I don't know the difference between smokeless and regular products. Cigarettes are the most consumed products in Canada. Their consumption has declined considerably, but a certain number of young people and other people still smoke them.
5:10 p.m.
Research Director, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada
I can add that smokeless tobacco is absorbed by the mouth. It is completely different from smoke being absorbed by the lungs. Hazardous products are transmitted directly from the lungs to the heart and the brain. Absorption by the mouth is slower, but just as dangerous.
5:10 p.m.
Bloc
Nicolas Dufour Bloc Repentigny, QC
I usually ask my questions correctly, but perhaps I did not in this case. I wanted to know whether there is a considerable difference, according to studies, between the two types of products, with regard to health. Is one of them much more harmful than the other, or are they the same?
5:10 p.m.
Research Director, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada
Both of them are harmful. According to the letter written by dental surgeons, there are a great many problems linked to the consumption of snuff, which can cause mouth cancer and serious harm to the cheeks. Lung cancer is caused by cigarettes, not by snuff. So the problems are different.
5:10 p.m.
Bloc
Nicolas Dufour Bloc Repentigny, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Earlier, my colleague asked an excellent question. I would like to ask it again. When the tobacco companies tell us that they have added vitamins, probiotics and other things to their products, is that not false advertising?
5:10 p.m.
Senior Policy Analyst, National Public Issues Office, Canadian Cancer Society
There are many cases of misleading advertising for so-called light cigarettes, for example, and other deceptive packaging. Vitamin-added tobacco products should not exist. If there are no vitamins, and the advertising and the packaging claim that there are, then that is definitely false advertising.
5:15 p.m.
Senior Policy Analyst, National Public Issues Office, Canadian Cancer Society
Yes, it is illegal.
5:15 p.m.
Conservative
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
Thank you, Madam Chairperson.
Thanks to every one of you for working so hard for so many years—in the case of Neil it's been 28 years—trying to rid our markets of these death sticks and cancerous products.
I especially want to thank Sam McKibbon for being here with his other friends and colleagues from the Northwestern Ontario Youth Action Alliance. I think folks are also here from the Eastern Ontario Youth Action Alliance and the Ottawa youth action alliance. When you launched your campaign Flavour...GONE! almost a year ago, I think it was really the key to moving all of us toward this point where we see a bill almost in its final stages. So I want to thank you very much.
One of the comments we've had from industry is that this bill will only make it worse for young people. In fact, I was quoting before from Imperial Tobacco. There's a certain other cigar owner in this country who has suggested that this bill won't do a thing and will only make it worse for young people. What do you say to that?
5:15 p.m.
Campaigner, Flavour...GONE!, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada
I can't speak in stats; I don't have letters behind my name, but I can speak from personal experience. I know that a lot of my friends have used tobacco products because there are flavourings in them. In terms of cigarillos, they make them easier to smoke. They make the smoke that you get on your clothes smell not as bad. They're a more appealing product because they're cigars instead of cigarettes.
People make that distinction at my age. I've heard lots of people say that cigars are more natural, which is totally not the case. It's exactly the same tobacco. Also, in terms of chewing tobacco, from my personal experience, I can say that the difference between regular Skoal and any kind of flavoured Skoal product is night and day. Most users, when they first use a straight product—a Skoal straight product—will puke, whereas the other products are quite palatable. I think it'll make a big difference to eliminate these flavours. That's what's making these products attractive to youth, and that's what's making those youth that normally wouldn't go out of their way to use tobacco products try them. It is something new. It is something different. It is something that we're definitely curious about.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
I was going to ask Melodie and Rob and Neil as well. What do you say to people like the folks at Imperial Tobacco who say that the amendments will throw the entire legal cigarette industry into chaos, that these amendments will have no effect and indeed will benefit the illegal industry in Canada?
5:15 p.m.
Director of Policy, Non-Smokers' Rights Association
There are a number of points made there. I want to address something you said just a moment ago, about this bill adversely affecting tobacco companies. I think members, in legislating tobacco control, have to recognize that we can't have it both ways. If indeed the legislation is going to have a meaningful impact on tobacco use in this country, it's going to affect the bottom line of tobacco companies. If it doesn't affect their business, then the bill isn't having any impact on tobacco use.
It should affect the tobacco companies. This particular bill, apart from the part banning advertising in print publications, primarily affects companies operating at the margins, not the big three companies in Canada. I don't understand at all their comment that they will be thrown into chaos. They survived in the market for years with no advertising while the Tobacco Act was before the Supreme Court of Canada.
5:15 p.m.
NDP
5:15 p.m.
Senior Policy Analyst, National Public Issues Office, Canadian Cancer Society
I haven't seen their comments in the context in which they were made. They certainly have a long history of exaggeration. If they have a particular technical issue with the bill that they've raised, I'm sure committee members would be interested in that.
5:15 p.m.
Research Director, Physicians for a Smoke-Free Canada
In response to concerns that flavours aren't that important, I would like to cite Mr. Bob Beets. Bob Beets was a sales representative for U.S. Tobacco, the company that makes this stuff. He said:
Cherry Skoal is for someone who likes the taste of candy, if you know what I'm saying.
They're marketing to kids.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
I'd like you to actually do something that's not very fair. I'd like you to prioritize the suggested amendments. I'm going to ask you—if you would agree—if you could only get one amendment, what should it be?
5:20 p.m.
Director of Policy, Non-Smokers' Rights Association
We had a meeting of our coalition last week, and we were all in agreement around the table that the number one priority for us was to see flavoured, smokeless tobacco included in the legislation. All four of us addressed that issue.
5:20 p.m.
NDP
Judy Wasylycia-Leis NDP Winnipeg North, MB
Do you believe that the bill as designed will actually allow for changes to regulations as we develop the evidence and science?
June 9th, 2009 / 5:20 p.m.
Director of Policy, Non-Smokers' Rights Association
Absolutely the bill will allow for changes, but through experience, I know that the regulatory process can be very slow. We feel we have sufficient evidence right now to merit flavoured smokeless tobacco being included on the schedule right now, so that we don't have the same situation a few years down the road that we had with cigarillos. Cigarillos surprised all of us. When we first saw the data, we couldn't believe that from nothing we had this huge problem with uptake amongst youth and young adults, and we don't want to see the stats of smokeless tobacco use go through the roof in the same way. Let's get smokeless on the schedule now so that we can curtail use by our really vulnerable youth population.
5:20 p.m.
Conservative
