Health committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee. I thank you for allowing me to speak to you today. I'm grateful for the invitation. I've been directing a smoking cessation clinic for quite a few years. My experience is dealing with ill and very ill smokers. This

Health committee  I think one of the problems we're facing at the moment is that if you deal with a case of emphysema or a case of throat cancer, and the patient has tried five, six, seven times to stop smoking with all the available tools that exist at the moment and hasn't been able to do so—and

Health committee  Yes, there was a case report. First of all, I would like to say the electronic cigarette has been available in Europe for the last 10 years. If there were any harmful results or effects on the lungs, it would appear in our scientific literature. If you look back at this report,

Health committee  No, not at all. On the other hand, with the use of electronic cigarettes we've seen that it's easier to control high blood pressure, you reduce the readmission or the exacerbation of COPD, and asthmatic patients have better control. It's been in use for the last 10 years. For th

Health committee  No.

Health committee  What do you mean? Do you mean the sale of them?

Health committee  I do agree with Bill S-5 that the e-cigarette doesn't need to be advertised. I see the e-cigarette as a tool for the addicted smoker to stop smoking. For example, with the Quebec law at the moment, it's impossible for the owner of, let's say, a vape shop to teach his customers

Health committee  The British experience tells us that electronic cigarettes are used by less than 1% of people who have never smoked. When we look at the statistics about young people taking up vaping, we have to be very careful about the questionnaire. It's not because you used electronic cigare

Health committee  The first thing is to find out what you have tried in the past. Most people have tried many different things in the past. We have to build on that experience. Now, we have to also assess how addicted you are. Are you a hard-core smoker or a light smoker? If you're a hard-core sm

Health committee  I presume that you're aware of this study coming from the Mayo Clinic saying—and the government pays for that—that people buying nicotine patches at the pharmacy without any counselling had the success rate of quitting smoking lower than the ones who quit by themselves cold turke

Health committee  No.

Health committee  That was suggested. I have given lectures to pharmacists myself, but the message did not get through. Of course, pharmacists could play a very important role in tobacco control. They already do so in pharmacotherapy, which is approved by Health Canada. They could do it for e-cig

Health committee  Yes. They showed no interest in engaging in this sort of activity.

Health committee  It should be said that nicotine could become addictive; this is something to be careful about. This is about the only concern I would have about the electronic cigarette. Again, I wish people would pay more attention to the studies coming from England and Europe saying that amo

Health committee  I don't see it in our clientele. Of course, we're dealing with an adult clientele. An excellent review was issued last week in the most recent document from Public Health England about the gateway effect that people were talking about. It's very difficult to make a good, sound,