Health Committee on Feb. 14th, 2012

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

You have some more time, Dr. Morin.

[Dany Morin, NDP, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Are there any other witnesses who would like to comment on that?

Mrs. Davidson?

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

Thank you very much for your question.

I just want to point out that I worked very closely with the eye care professionals as we developed this. Hopefully we have within the bill itself what is needed for the protection of eye health. I also worked very closely with Health Canada. There may be a couple of amendments that are needed just to tweak some of the issues that Health Canada needs to deal with as this progresses through.

Hopefully the meat of the bill is correct and has in it everything that is needed to protect the eye health of Canadians.

[Dany Morin, NDP, Chicoutimi—Le Fjord, QC]

Thank you.

Do I have more time?

If that's the case, I'll give Ms. Quach the remaining minute.

[Anne Minh-Thu Quach, NDP, Beauharnois—Salaberry, QC]

It's my turn to thank you for being here.

At the same time as all this, have you planned a preventive ad campaign aimed directly at young people who appear to see this product as a toy or as something harmless?

The question is for all the eye care professionals. Perhaps you have something planned?

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

I'm not planning on launching any campaigns, but I'm quite sure that the eye care industry would be willing to speak to that.

[Janice Schmidt]

Actually, that would be phase two. Obviously moving forward, this is like a journey; this is the first phase, where we need to have your support in pushing this forward, and the next is education. Education is extremely important, but we would need this to go through all the proper channels and pass in order to have that ammunition to then go forward and launch, absolutely, a marketing campaign.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

Mr. Cooper.

[Dana Cooper]

Thank you very much.

In regard to some of the things we are currently doing or have been doing, we're working with the Canadian Pharmacists Association to try to draft up a statement. We've been in contact with individual pharmacy chains in regard to just informing them about the risks of harm with regard to cosmetic contact lenses, and we regularly get reports of retailers retailing the products, with whom we can communicate.

There is an education perspective there, not aimed directly at teens but more at the retailers. When Bill C-313 receives assent, we want to work with Health Canada on public education notices. We want to work with the provinces on getting a regulatory environment in line there and then get their assistance also with the public education component of that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you.

Dr. Carrie.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I must say how pleased I am to see Pat Davidson back here at the table. I had the honour of serving with her for a number of years.

It's good to see you back, Pat. Thank you very much for this bill.

I did want to continue with the line of questioning my colleague, Dr. Morin, was moving towards. Dr. Cooper brought up a very important point about timing, and I think all of us around the table here would like to see this enacted as quickly as possible.

I was wondering, Mr. Boyer, if you would comment. We are proposing an amendment, and one of the concerns was its coming into force so that there is no confusion, so that it can move ahead without causing any distress. We do have an amendment that is going to read:

This Act comes into force on a day to be fixed by order of the Governor in Council.

I was wondering if you can comment on why that might be a good idea.

[Don Boyer]

Certainly. Thank you very much.

There are two reasons for that amendment. The first reason is that this is the historical or traditional way of bringing this type of change into effect with a bill or a law.

Second, what's being proposed here is that the coming into force of the act be aligned with the coming into force of changed regulations. As I mentioned in my presentation, non-corrective contact lenses do not have any effectiveness with respect to correction of vision. Currently, the medical devices regulations require manufacturers to submit evidence of effectiveness. So bringing the bill into effect before the regulations can be amended would therefore make all non-corrective contact lenses unable to comply with the medical devices regulations, and I don't think that's the policy intent here of putting forward the bill.

We would still maintain, under the medical devices regulations, stringent requirements for safety, for the quality, and for the auditing of manufacturing facilities that produce these types of products, but the proposed revision and the wording would better align and synchronize the coming into force of the act with the coming into force of regulations that would exempt non-corrective lenses from the effectiveness requirements.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you.

I wanted to talk about why cosmetic contact lenses are not regulated in Canada. Perhaps you could comment on the word “cosmetic”, and whether it causes confusion.

[Don Boyer]

Let me address the “cosmetic” issue first. “Cosmetic” is currently defined in the Food and Drugs Act, and we are supportive of a revised definition in order to remove any confusion about the products addressed in this bill. These are known as non-corrective or plano lenses, and we believe that adding the word “cosmetic” to that definition will create confusion. There is already a separate definition that appears in the Food and Drugs Act and a separate regulatory framework that deals with cosmetics. So that's the first issue.

With respect to not being regulated, this is not the case. Non-corrective contact lenses have been regulated. What the bill is proposing is to put them in with products such as corrective contact lenses. Because they are likely made by the same manufacturers of similar materials, it was thought that they should be put with the medical devices regulations under the Food and Drugs Act.

Until this time, non-corrective contact lenses have been regulated under the authority of the Hazardous Products Act and the hazardous products regulations. More recently, they were considered under the Canadian Consumer Product Safety Act, which is where they sit right now. So it's not the case that they are not subject to regulation.

I think the proposed legislation would move these products into a regulatory framework that's more encompassing, that has pre-market requirements and post-market requirements, and that has quality requirements for the manufacturers.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Well, it makes sense, and other countries have done this in the interests of safety. I have a 10-year-old, and, yes, she does run the house.

Pat, I was wondering if you could comment on why this issue is important to you and what got you to put this bill together.

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

I started hearing about it when I was a member of this committee, meeting with some of the eye care professionals at my office. It was a subject that I had a great interest in. I've always had fairly poor vision and I've always tried to look after my eyes. It makes me cringe when I think of people who are not looking after their eyes. I look around this table and I see there are a lot of people in the same situation I'm in. I see a lot of corrective eyewear around this table. So I think you can understand where I'm coming from.

When you are young and have no vision problems, you see yourself as invincible. We need to do what we can to protect our young people. I have grandchildren coming up, too. I certainly don't want to see anything happen to their eyes. Something I've lived with all my life is poor eyesight, and good eyesight is something I value very highly. When the last thing you do at night is take your glasses off and the first thing you do in the morning is put them on, you realize what it's like not to be able to see too well.

So it was something that I had a great interest in, and I think it will especially help the young people in our society.

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you very much, Pat, and I'll move my glasses down to my nose to give that wise look.

[Voices]

Oh, oh!

[Colin Carrie, Conservative, Oshawa, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you, Ms. Davidson.

Dr. Fry.

[Hedy Fry, Liberal, Vancouver Centre, BC]

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I don't have any questions. I think all the witnesses were pretty clear. As Pat knows, I have supported her bill fully. I'm intrigued by the reasons for going to Governor in Council, and I think it makes sense.

All I really want to do, Pat, is say that it's an extraordinarily important bill. As you said yourself, it's going to help young people.

I agree with Ms. Schmidt that the important thing is for us to have public education accompanying this bill, so that people can understand it. We see the scientific evidence and understand the arguments, and we tend to think the young people do as well. As a physician for many years, I can tell you that young people still think that if you cross your fingers you won't get pregnant. Young people just don't see the future as being real. They're young and everything's going to happen for them—it's all going to be great. So I think it's really important, the education piece. It's a key part that I wanted to support.

Anyway, thanks, Pat.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joy Smith]

Thank you, Dr. Fry.

We go now to Ms. Block.

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

Thank you very much, Madam Chair.

I do want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today. It has been very educational.

A special thank you to our colleague, Pat Davidson. I echo the comments of my colleague across the way. As many of our witnesses have noticed, you brought this issue to the attention of the House of Commons. I have to admit my ignorance regarding this issue, and actually my surprise to find out that these lenses are not regulated in a way that ensures safe use.

My question is going to go to anyone who would be willing to answer. I need to understand the history and how it has happened that these non-corrective cosmetic lenses are on the market without any kind of regulation that would ensure the safe use of them. This is to whoever would like to answer.

[Don Boyer]

I will attempt to answer that question. As I mentioned, these have not been on the market without regulation, but I think we would all agree that bringing it into the medical devices framework will provide that pre-market assurance that products are safe and of sufficient quality before they go on the market.

I don't think Canada has been unique in this particular situation. It was mentioned in one of the presentations that it took a long time in the United States. In 2005 they deemed them to be medical devices, similar to what the policy intent of this legislation is. In many other countries they are not regulated as medical devices. They are not regulated in Australia or in Europe, for example. Mexico seems to be moving towards the regulation of these products. Also, China has made some announcements that likely in the near future they will be regulating these products. We may be a little bit behind where the U.S. and some other countries are, but I think this is a good move for what we are doing today in bringing them into a regulatory framework that will allow them to be regulated from a product concept to a post-market surveillance of the products on the market.

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

Thank you.

My second question would be around public education. I think I need you to clarify. If I heard correctly, organizations and the industry have been waiting for some sort of designation under the Food and Drugs Act in order to do public education. I'm wondering why, as soon as these non-corrective cosmetic lenses came on the market, the industry didn't respond quicker to start to educate the public, and especially our youth, around the unsafe use of them.