Thank you, Madam Chair.
Action on Smoking and Health is western Canada's leading tobacco control organization. ASH has contributed to the tobacco control movement for 30 years, and I have served as its executive director since 1989.
I thank the committee for recognizing the regional disparities in tobacco use by allowing me to participate in these important hearings. I would also like to thank my national colleagues for calling for amendments that will help to reduce health inequities in Bill C-32.
We congratulate the federal government and Parliament for taking concerted action to crack down on flavoured tobacco products and print advertising. These are important measures that will help to prevent tobacco use among young people. However, we have grave concerns about the current exemption for smokeless tobacco in Bill C-32.
“Smokeless“ is certainly not harmless. Smokeless tobacco contains over 3,000 chemicals and 28 known carcinogens. It is highly addictive and it has no safe level of consumption. The product contains a lethal mixture of tobacco, nicotine, sweeteners, abrasives, salts, flavourings, and various chemicals. In 1986, the U.S. Surgeon General declared that oral use of smokeless tobacco represents a significant health risk, and that it is not a safe substitute for smoking.
Young people are particularly at risk of nicotine addiction from smokeless tobacco, as they are often lacking the cognitive ability to fully appreciate the consequences and strength of the addiction until it's too late.
Unfortunately, Alberta is the epicentre of smokeless tobacco in Canada, and it represents about 40% of the total smokeless market. Over the years, the smokeless tobacco companies have aligned their products with Alberta's cowboy image of independence, risk-taking, and hard living. Prior to the sponsorship ban in 2004, smokeless tobacco products were promoted widely at rodeos throughout western Canada. The smokeless tobacco companies now have a limited presence at some of these events, in adult-only venues.
However, these companies have found other creative ways to target young people. Over the past two decades, the smokeless tobacco companies have steadily increased their product offerings to include a wide array of flavourings. Their sales have steadily increased with the introduction of flavourings, like peach, apple, wintergreen, cherry, mint, and vanilla. These fruit and candy flavourings are virtually identical to those that have contributed to the dramatic rise in cigarillo sales in recent years and they deserve equal concern.
It is therefore not surprising that significant numbers of teenagers in Alberta and other regions are attracted to flavoured, smokeless tobacco. According to the Canadian tobacco use monitoring survey, teens are three times as likely to have tried smokeless tobacco in the past 30 days compared with adults age 25 and over. The same survey also revealed that 15-year-old to 19-year-old teenagers represent 25% of total users, although this population is only 7% of the general population.
The Alberta numbers are even worse. The rate of smokeless tobacco among Alberta teens is almost double the national average. In fact, there are almost as many Alberta male teens using smokeless tobacco as there are using cigarettes. There's no question that teenagers in Alberta and Canada are using smokeless tobacco products at a disproportionate rate. As you heard from Sam McKibbon earlier this week, teens are attracted to fruit and candy-flavoured, smokeless tobacco products in the same way they are attracted to flavoured cigarillos.
I grew up in a farming and ranching community in southern Alberta, where smokeless tobacco was not uncommon. However, I've never seen a rancher or a cowboy use peach, or berry, or cherry chew. As the industry's own internal documents show, these flavoured products are intended to help graduate adolescents into harsher products like Copenhagen or like cigarettes, once they become adults.
Here's a direct quote from an internal industry document:
New users of smokeless tobacco--attracted to the [product] for a variety of reasons--are most likely to begin with products that are milder tasting, more flavoured and/or easier to control in the mouth. After a period of time, there is a natural progression of product switching to brands that are more full-bodied, less flavoured, have more concentrated“tobacco taste” than the entry brand.
We cannot overlook the contribution of smokeless tobacco to cigarette addiction among young people, as they graduate from one harmful product to another. Recently, Philip Morris, the world's largest cigarette company, purchased the U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Company, which produces Skoal and Copenhagen. This telling marketing strategy should not be lost on committee members.
I've submitted two detailed backgrounders on smokeless tobacco use in Alberta, which were prepared by Alberta Health Services and its affiliates. The documents reveal that smokeless tobacco companies have been targeting teens as young as age 15 by adding flavourings and sweeteners to make their products more palatable. These backgrounders confirm the problems associated with flavoured, smokeless tobacco use in Alberta and beyond.
In closing, we urge the federal government and Parliament to take regional disparities into account when considering Bill C-32.
Health Canada advocates publicly for the reduction of health inequities, and the current smokeless exemption is one such inequity. Flavoured, smokeless tobacco is having a disproportionate impact on youth, especially those living in rural Canada, northern Canada, and the prairie provinces. We encourage the committee to support an amendment to remove this exemption and to give these kids a greater chance to remain tobacco-free.