Health Committee on Feb. 14th, 2012

[Lorne Kashin]

I'd like to respond. I can speak to Ontario, where we hold neighbourhood eye care fairs. At these fairs we educate the public. We usually bring in an ophthalmologist and a number of opticians who do a lot of pediatrics...in different realms of what we do. At that point, we were educating consumers about these lenses. We also stir things up a little bit by visiting the stores that do sell these lenses and talk to the proprietors and let them know the risks with these things. I myself have attended some stores. It's business. They say, “If I don't sell these lenses, they are just going to go across the street.” It's not just the lens purchase they are going to lose; it's the other party supplies they are going to lose.

We have been doing what we can, but we can't stop it. We have been educating. We have been going down that road already.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Mr. Cooper, did you want to make a comment?

[Dana Cooper]

Further, in regard to some questions with regard to public education, I haven't mentioned that all three organizations at this table—the opticians, the ophthalmologists, and the optometrists—annually prepare press releases to try to warn the public, particularly at the peak time of the year, which is Halloween, the day the bill hit first reading in the House. Particularly around that time of year we see a lot of activity from all three organizations trying to educate the public about the risks associated with these products and how to properly go about the proper use and purchase.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

I just want to add a little bit to that.

As legislators, we all know it is very difficult for other people to promote something that doesn't have regulation behind it to prove that theory. It puts people who are educating the public in a difficult position if the regulation is not there for them to do that, so it's vitally important that it be there.

[Kelly Block, Conservative, Saskatoon—Rosetown—Biggar, SK]

Thank you. I appreciate that clarification and the opportunity you've had to talk about what you are doing.

I have one last question, and it will be for Mr. Cooper. How long has your organization been lobbying government to make this change?

[Dana Cooper]

It predates my time at the organization. I don't think it predates our executive director, Glenn Campbell, but we've been working with Health Canada. In 2000 it issued a public health warning about cosmetic contact lenses, so it goes back that far, and even beyond, with regard to trying to get the regulations and pushing for regulation of these products.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

We'll now go into our five-minute round. That's five-minute questions and answers, so our time is a little tighter.

We'll begin with Ms. Davies.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Thank you very much, Chairperson.

First, thank you to Ms. Davidson for coming to the committee, and to the witnesses.

We've been very pleased to support the bill, and today we'll kind of go through it in detail, and the amendments.

I have two questions. If the bill goes through, presumably with the amendments, I wonder if you could describe really clearly what it means for consumers. How will it actually change what they do, or will it at all? Some of you talked about the importance of fitting and having that professional oversight. I'm not clear whether or not these amendments will actually have that effect, whether they will change anything consumers do in terms of how they are purchasing these products or how they are fitted or not.

The second question is in terms of education. Who will actually do that? Everybody has mentioned it. I don't mean sort of a passive education in terms of information on a website where you have to wait for people to go somewhere, like Health Canada or maybe one of the associations. Is there a sense that education would then be carried out in a more proactive way, and if so, who would do that? Is it Health Canada, is it your associations, or is it all of you together? To me, if it's not sort of out there, then probably there will be very little awareness, even though you might have some education.

Could any of you address those two points?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Who would like to take that on?

[Jennifer Brunet-Colvey]

Good morning. Again, thank you for your time this morning.

Perhaps I could mention that we've been working very closely with the American Academy of Ophthalmology, which is a very large organization representing more than 25,000 eye physicians and surgeons in the United States. It has been very encouraging having this legislation passed in Canada.

I immediately brought in Robert Dalton, who is the executive director of the Opticians Association of Canada, as well as Dana Cooper and Glenn Campbell, to this process to show them all of the great materials and the public education materials they have in the States. It's a collaborative effort, and certainly they have PSAs, they have Twitter feeds.

Help me out here, Dana. They have other different kinds of opportunities where people could actually look at little videos where all of this information is there. They do a tremendous amount of work, but it is usually during the month of October, leading up to Halloween. That's when the big public education push happens. But certainly there is a model out there and some terrific work in terms of public education. So there is a model.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

Maybe on the second question, I really want to know what it means for the consumer. Is it going to change the way kids can actually purchase one of these devices? What does that mean?

[Dr. Desmond Fonn]

Certainly access will change, and that's what this bill is about. It's to place these lenses in the hands of people who can fit them and, if you will, prescribe them. But that doesn't change the Internet. It doesn't change what you as an individual can do with the Internet. It changes the legislation, but people can bypass legislation. People take risks. Certainly people who sell material, any kind of material, on the Internet understand the legality of doing so. I don't know how we can affect that. That's a huge challenge.

Nevertheless, it will stop vendors and purveyors of these materials or these lenses. It will prevent them because there is an associated risk of breaking the law, and that's what we want to do. But it won't help unless there's a good public relations piece to support the education piece, to support the change in which these lenses will be made available and the risks associated with wearing them.

[Libby Davies, NDP, Vancouver East, BC]

I think it was Mr. Boyer who mentioned that there are pre-market and post-market.... Will those companies be captured that way in terms of the Internet? Although they may be able to bypass the fitting procedure and so on, they will be caught by that. Is that correct?

[Don Boyer]

Yes. There is a pre-market authorization by which a manufacturer would have to apply to Health Canada to obtain a licence to be able to sell this product in Canada. Part of the review of that will include some of the indications that the manufacturer is putting on the product, which could include instructions for use and that kind of information, which could become available to Health Canada to review prior to authorizing the product to be on the market.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you, Mr. Boyer.

We'll now go to Mr. Brown.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

Thank you, Joy.

Thank you, Pat Davidson, for all your great work. Like Colin said, it's great to have you back at the health committee after your numerous years of being such an activist on health issues.

I have a question. It was mentioned that in 2005 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration successfully introduced amendments to regulate it as a medical device. What are other countries doing in this? What information do we have in terms of how Canada needs to act more quickly on this, as suggested by your bill? It's a question to you, Pat, or anyone else who could highlight that.

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

As Mr. Boyer has stated, we're certainly not at the head of the pack when it comes to passing regulations. We are ahead of some of the other countries.

Perhaps you could just reiterate what....

[Don Boyer]

In terms of the countries that I'm aware of, or the regions of the globe that I'm aware of, the U.S. deemed these to be medical devices in 2005, and therefore the full aspect of their regulatory framework applied to them at that point in time. Mexico is close to bringing in requirements for non-corrective contact lenses, and recent information indicates that China is also looking at doing so within the next little while.

Europe does not regulate these products. Australia does not regulate these products. We weren't at the head of the class, but we're not at the bottom of the class either.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

Is there a general buzz, though, that this is the direction most countries will be heading in?

[Don Boyer]

I don't know the answer to that question.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

It seems like a terrific bill.

Janice is from Barrie, Ontario. I'm very happy to see a representative from Georgian College here. I'm pleased to see you in support of this excellent piece of legislation.

Is there anything additional that you want to add? I know your time has all been very strict, given the time allotments. Is there anything else you want to get out on this bill, on the record?

[Janice Schmidt]

Only that I believe it's been a long time in coming, and I'm so excited to be a part of this. That's all I'd like to say at this point. I'm very excited.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

As Hedy mentioned, I think a lot of the questions have generally been asked, but Pat, is there anything else you wanted to add on behalf of your bill?

[Patricia Davidson, Conservative, Sarnia—Lambton, ON]

I'd just add a little bit to the question I was asked about why this was important to me. I talked a little bit about my own eye health and how I have an interest in making sure young people look after their own eye care. But another thing that really spurred me on to this was the fact that people I knew had damage done to their eyes. Actually, some of my staff members had damage caused from wearing the lenses. So that certainly was a personal issue, too, that helped spur this interest on.

[Patrick Brown, Conservative, Barrie, ON]

Thank you very much for all your hard work.