Thank you to the witnesses for coming today. I appreciate your being so specific. It's very helpful. I certainly would agree with the observation being made that there are lots of folks out there who are using e-cigarettes and are trying to do the right thing from a health point of view in terms of a lower risk but they actually have no idea what they are using. I've actually talked to people personally who said that they've been very confused about whether or not they are using a product that has nicotine or no nicotine, so I think that's a very real situation.
I also hear you all saying, and we've heard this from other witnesses, that a regulatory framework is urgently needed even though we don't have all of the research that needs to be done. We are in this interim stage. I don't know what Health Canada has been doing since 2009, but really we have to get serious about this and start moving quickly.
I'm going to jump into some more specific questions.
I'm not quite clear if you are saying that all advertising should be banned or whether you are just referring to advertising that makes lifestyle claims or health claims and so on. Could you clarify that?
Ms. Bois, I wasn't clear whether you were saying that we should allow both nicotine and non-nicotine.
Ms. Tilson, I think you said that we should allow nicotine. If so, do you have a recommendation as to what the level should be? Earlier, I think somebody said that it was a maximum of 18, would it be milligrams? I don't know. Do you have any thoughts on that?
The other question I have, if there's time, is on the connection to the tobacco industry. Are you suggesting there shouldn't be any connection? I hear what you're saying in terms of advertising about the similarity and all that, but are you also saying that tobacco companies shouldn't be allowed to produce e-cigarettes and that it should be completely separate? I wasn't quite clear on that.