Alberta looks set to legislate against flavored tobacco products

The results of a new survey indicating that a high percentage of teenager tobacco users in Alberta, Canada, consume flavored products are being used by anti-tobacco lobbyists to call for a ban on such products.

According to a story by Keith Gerein for the Edmonton Journal, the 2010-11 Youth Smoking Survey conducted by Health Canada polled the tobacco habits of 50,000 Canadian students in grades 6 to 12, including 4,500 from 35 schools in Alberta.

Of the Alberta students who said they used tobacco, 64 per cent were consuming some kind of flavored product, a figure that was ahead of the national average of 59 per cent of those surveyed.

The survey found the most popular product was the flavored cigarillo, which was the product of choice of slightly more than 35 per cent of Alberta’s young tobacco users and 29 per cent of youngsters across Canada.

About 30 per cent of Alberta’s young tobacco users smoked flavored cigars, way ahead of the national average of 19 per cent.

Alberta students also ranked ahead of the national standard in consumption of menthol cigarettes, spit tobacco and water pipe tobacco.

Alberta’s associate minister of wellness, Dave Rodney, suggested that a bill focusing on flavored tobacco products would be introduced in the fall session.

“Everyone knows we have to keep up the fight against tobacco use, especially against those who target our youngest and most vulnerable Albertans,” he said.

“But it has to be well thought out legislation, it has to be effective and enforceable. So we are taking the time necessary to develop a comprehensive package.”