Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to stand up on behalf of all my colleagues in the New Democratic Party and offer our unequivocal support for the motion and to congratulate the member for Sarnia—Lambton.
This is a very important initiative on the part of the member and it ought to be supported by everyone in the House. In fact, I believe, Mr. Speaker, that you undoubtedly will find, at the end of this debate, unanimous support for the motion because it makes sense. It makes sense because it protects Canadians.
The motion would ensure that this medical device, the lenses that may only be used for cosmetic purposes but are put in our body and create problems, would be regulated. It is as simple as that. It would ensure that a product, which is put on the market that could harm the health and well-being of Canadians, would be regulated and that there would be some onus of responsibility on the part of these corporations that are flooding our markets with devices that have only cosmetic value, but could cause harm to our citizens. They must be held to account.
We recently talked about new products in the area of tobacco, cigarillos designed to entice kids to start to smoked. They are not regulated because they are a cigar product, not a cigarette product.
It goes without saying that we must look at this area. In fact, when we look at some of the medical fallout from these unsupervised decorative lenses, people will know what we are speaking about. There are corneal ulcers, conjunctivitis, corneal edema, allergic reactions, corneal abrasion, reduction in visual acuity and contrasensitivity.
In 2002 the food and drug administration warned consumers about these cosmetic lenses. It said that there was serious risk of permanent eye injury, potentially leading to blindness presented by non-corrective, decorative contact lenses distributed without a prescription and without proper fitting by an eye care professional. That is six years ago.
In 2005 the United States finally did amend the federal food and drug cosmetic act to establish that all contact lenses, regardless of whether they were cosmetic or not, would be covered under the protections of that act.
In the United States all contact lenses must be approved and issued under the guidance of a qualified prescriber. We are saying the same should happen in Canada. Health Canada still distinguishes between corrective and non-corrective lenses, even though the health implications for their use are virtually identical.
We obviously support this. I congratulate the member for Sarnia—Lambton. I also congratulate the Manitoba Association of Optometrists, which contacted me about the importance of this issue, and all the associations of ophthalmologists, optometrists and opticians throughout the country that have spoken out on this issue long and hard.
I congratulate the member for her vision and foresight on this issue. I wish her well. I think she is proposing to have this addressed under the Food and Drugs Act or under the Hazardous Products Act. I support either venue and I wish her luck on this initiative.
If and when we pass this motion, I wish her luck in convincing her colleagues in the government to act on it. At the time when we are dealing with such an issue, her own government is busy trying to move away from the precautionary principle, the do no harm principle, and leading us down a path of progressive licensing on all kinds of products, which means we lessen our vigilance on the front end and pretend we will take some actions after these products are on the market.
As we know, when it comes to something like unregulated contact lenses, the harm is done, the damage is done and it cannot be corrected. We cannot go back. We have to act in the first instance and ensure that when products are put on the market, they do not harm Canadians.