Faqs for the general public tobacco laws

Frequently Asked Questions for the General public Sections: Minors Laws Taxes Health Effects

Questions related to Minors: Q: Is the legal age to buy cigarettes the same in all the provinces?

A. No it’s not. The legal age to buy cigarettes is 19 in British Columbia, Ontario, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. The legal age to buy cigarettes is 18 in Quebec, Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

Q: What is the penalty if I am caught selling cigarettes to minors?

A. The Tobacco Act states that “no person shall furnish a tobacco product to a young person in a public place or in a place to which the public reasonably has access.” Anyone found guilty of this offence can be charged a fine of up to $3000 for a first offence and up to $50,000 for a subsequent offence.

(Furnishing a tobacco product includes giving it for free or in exchange for any service or consideration.)

Q: As a minor, is there a penalty for possessing tobacco?

A. No. During the development of the Tobacco sales to young persons Act [replaced by the Tobacco Act], regulators considered the legality of minors possessing cigarettes or other tobacco products. It was felt that the threat of a penalty is not the most effective way of preventing a teenager from smoking.

Instead, regulators decided to concentrate on prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors, in the belief that adult retailers would be better able to cope with the responsibility of restricting sales to young persons. Therefore, possession of tobacco by a minor is not a federal offence.

Q: What measures has the government taken to prevent the sale of tobacco products to minors?

A. One of the purposes of the Tobacco Act is to protect the health of young persons by restricting youth access to tobacco products. To this end, the Tobacco Act prohibits any person from furnishing a tobacco product to a young person (person under 18 or 19 years of age, depending on the province) in a public place or in a place to which the public reasonably has

access. The word 'furnish' is not limited to the sale of tobacco products, but also means to lend, give, send, assign, or to barter or deposit with another person for the performance of a service. Taxation and the Tobacco Control Initiative have also helped to discourage the purchase of tobacco by young people. The federal government has also severely restricted the manner in which tobacco products may be promoted, in an attempt to prevent tobacco companies from appealing to minors through their promotions of their products. A new survey found that in the first half of 2001, an estimated 5.7 million people, representing roughly 23% of the population aged 15 and older, smoked either daily or occasionally. This is the lowest overall level of smoking in Canada since regular monitoring began in 1965.

B. See also: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hppb/tobaccoreduction/ ) Q: It seems that minors age 15 and up still get access to cigarettes easily.

What is being done to enforce the law against selling to minors ?

A: In each of the last three years, Health Canada and its provincial partners have issued tickets or prosecuted more than 1 000 alleged violations of salesto-youth prohibitions across the country. If you are aware of any retailers who furnish tobacco products to youth, Health Canada would be pleased to investigate the situation. Please email your concerns to: questions-reg@hcsc.gc.ca, or call (613) 941-4031.

Q: Why does the government especially target young people and youth in their anti-tobacco campaigns? Shouldn’t they concentrate their efforts on the older smokers in order to help them improve their health and do less damage to their bodies than they already have?

A. Research shows that 85 % of smokers start before their 18th birthday, and that the younger a person starts smoking, the more likely he or she will remain a smoker, smoke more heavily, and suffer from a tobacco-related disease that may cause them to die prematurely. The key to long-term reduction in the numbers of people who smoke, therefore, is to prevent young people from starting. This is why the federal government has laws in place prohibiting the sale of cigarettes to minors.

Questions related to Laws Q: What is Health Canada’s position regarding the smoke-free by-laws?

Why doesn't the federal government bring in laws to stop smoking in all public places?

A: Numerous provinces and municipalities are moving towards banning smoking in public places, and many regions have already successfully done so.

Smoking bans help protect the health of an increasing number of Canadians from the thousands of chemicals found in cigarette smoke. They have also

been shown to significantly increase the number of people who quit smoking.

Under the Non-Smokers' Health Act, the federal government has banned smoking from public service workplaces, on airline flights that last six hours or less, and on intercity buses. In addition, the Act restricts smoking on trains, in transport terminals, and in hospitals under federal jurisdiction. Smoking in other public places falls under the jurisdiction of the provincial, territorial or municipal governments. Parliament has no authority in those areas. If you have concern about smoking in public places, you may wish to bring your concerns to the attention of your provincial government.

Q: Why does Health Canada allow such a toxic product to be sold legally in Canada?

The addictive nature of the nicotine found in tobacco is well documented. Some studies reveal that it can be harder to quit tobacco than it is to quit using heroin or cocaine. Unfortunately, tobacco use was widely established in Canada before the serious health consequences became known. Today tobacco is consumed by close to six million Canadians, most of whom are addicted to nicotine. As a result, it would be impractical and unrealistic to ban the sale of tobacco products and smoking.

Q: What approach has the government taken to eliminating tobacco use?

A. Health Canada has developed the Tobacco Control Initiative (TCI): a strong, balanced, and comprehensive approach to a pressing nationwide health problem. The key components of the TCI are legislation and regulations, enforcement, research, and public education. The goal of the TCI is to improve the overall health and quality of life of Canadians, particularly young Canadians, through the reduction of tobacco-related illness and death.

This goal will be achieved by preventing non-smokers from starting to smoke; protecting the health of non-smokers, and encouraging and helping those who wish to quit smoking.

Q: Why haven’t you required that tobacco companies reduce the level of toxic compounds in their products? Or just ban the addictive components of cigarettes? Or decrease the nicotine content gradually over time?

A: Tobacco products are inherently hazardous. Although some efforts have already been made, the department will have to conduct extensive research in toxicological/pharmacological sciences and behavioral sciences before regulating the contents of tobacco products. In-depth knowledge will be necessary to determine whether the harm reduction route or the addiction reduction route will be the best approach to be adopted in regulations.

Increased understanding of tobacco chemistry and of nicotine addiction are paramount to successful design of any product modification scheme. In addition, research will have to be matched to extensive testing and development of prototypes to look at the feasibility and effectiveness of new requirements. Health Canada is monitoring tobacco research to find out when and if reduction in the toxic emissions from tobacco is feasible and truly achievable. So far, the only safe cigarette is an unlit cigarette.

The addictive nature of the nicotine found in tobacco is well documented. Some studies reveal that it can be harder to quit tobacco than it is to quit using heroin or cocaine. In the early 1990s, certain researchers suggested that some nicotine be removed from tobacco products as a means to deter more people from becoming addicted. Unfortunately, if nicotine were reduced in tobacco products, nicotine-addicted smokers would likely be driven to smoke more cigarettes to get the amount of nicotine they need to satisfy their addiction. By smoking more, these people would inhale more of the other toxic compounds in the process, leading to more Canadians suffering from debilitating and often fatal diseases.

Research on smokers has shown that people cannot be forced to quit an addiction; rather they need to be given the tools that will help them take the steps to quit on their own terms.

Q: Why has the government decided to place their new graphic health warnings on cigarette packages rather than somewhere else, such as on billboards, posters, etc?

A. Health Canada’s research shows that consumers use the cigarette package as a source of information and that the cigarette package is a good way of reaching smokers; hence, it is a public education tool. The research also shows that the new health warning messages encourage smokers to quit and non-smokers to never start. Past studies have shown that cigarette packages are the second best source of smoking-related health information for smokers, right after television. Recent surveys have confirmed this fact. The old text-only health warning messages were read by smokers on average 1.7 times a day, two years after their introduction, (1996.) We are currently studying the impact of the new health warnings.

Q: Why is the health department singling out tobacco products for graphic warning labels? Why don’t they demand warning labels on everything?

A. Government's intervention has to be tailored to the specific health problem it addresses. One-size-fits-all solutions do not work in public health. Successful public health strategies are usually those that are comprehensive, integrated, sustained, and well–adapted.

Q: What is health minister Anne McClellan hoping to accomplish by using these new graphic warning labels?

A. The tobacco health warning messages are designed to provide clear, accurate health information to Canadians in a graphically effective manner.

Decades of experience have shown that many factors influence the decision to smoke or to quit smoking; therefore, we need many tools to bring people to a point where they can successfully stop -- or decide not to start smoking.

The health warning messages, together with the health information on cessation inserted in the packs, are a key component of a comprehensive and integrated tobacco control strategy. They complement Health Canada’s social marketing, legislative, and compliance efforts.

Q: Why do tobacco packages now have different ingredient listings ?

From 1995 to 2001, many cigarette manufacturers were voluntarily listing the tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide levels found in the smoke from one cigarette on their packages, according to an ISO method.

The new Tobacco Products Information Regulations provides a new list of chemicals that must be listed on packaging. In addition to the levels of tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide, which were already displayed on tobacco packages by most tobacco companies, the levels of benzene, hydrogen cyanide and formaldehyde must now be placed on packaging as well, and the quantity of each chemical in the smoke must be given as a range, using a modified ISO standard for the upper end of the range.

The range of emissions that may be present in tobacco smoke is represented by a low number and a high number. The low number represents the amount of toxic emissions inhaled with the smoke of one cigarette, as determined by smoking machines, using conditions developed by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The high number represents the amount of toxic emissions inhaled with the smoke of one cigarette, under intense smoking conditions. Because no two smokers smoke the same way, this new method of expressing the toxic emissions better reflects the range of levels of toxic substances inhaled by smokers.

Over 4000 chemicals, including 50 known carcinogens are released when a cigarette is smoked. It is important to note that smoking cigarettes with lower ranges of emissions may be just as hazardous as smoking those with higher ranges. For instance, smokers may feel a need to inhale more deeply or smoke more cigarettes when they have lower levels of tar, in order to satisfy their addiction to the nicotine. The new regulations will help to increase smokers' awareness of just a few of the toxic emissions present.

Q: What type of advertising are tobacco companies allowed to use?

A. Tobacco products may be advertised in publications where 85% of the readership is adults (meaning older than 18 years of age). Tobacco products may also be advertised in publications that are mailed and addressed to an adult who is identified by name. They also may be advertised in publications that are found in a place that has signs indicating that young persons are not permitted to frequent/ enter by law.

In the above cases, tobacco products may be advertised by means of information advertising or brand-preference advertising. Information advertising means advertising that provides factual information to the consumer about a product and its characteristics or the availability or price of a product or brand of product. Brand-preference advertising means advertising that promotes a tobacco product by means of its brand characteristics.

Tobacco products may NOT be advertised in a manner called “life-style advertising.� This means advertising that associates a product with, or evokes a positive or negative emotion about or image of, a way of life such as one that includes glamour, recreation, excitement, vitality, risk or daring.

Q: Why are you focusing so much attention on cigarettes and tobacco, when there are so many other products that can make people sick?

A. Tobacco use is by far the greatest factor in preventable death and disease in Canada, relating to more than 45 000 premature deaths annually. This is three times more than the number of premature deaths caused by car accidents, suicide, drug abuse, murder and AIDS combined. Tobacco use directly costs the health care system $3.5 billion a year.

Discouraging this type of public health hazard is a responsible course of action.

Unfortunately, tobacco use was widely established in Canada before the serious health consequences of its use became known. Today, tobacco is consumed by close to six million Canadians, many of whom are addicted.

Therefore, the federal government is especially concerned about the toll tobacco takes on individuals and the social costs it imposes on all Canadians.

Q: Why doesn’t the government force cigarette companies to provide nicotine addiction assistance?

A: This option has been proposed before, but in order to avoid a potential conflict of interest, it was deemed not appropriate to go in that direction.

Q: Why doesn't the government make possession of tobacco by minors a crime?

A: During the development of the Tobacco sales to young persons Act (now the Tobacco Act), regulators considered the legality of minors possessing cigarettes or other tobacco products. It was felt that the threat of a penalty is

not the most effective way of preventing a teenager from smoking. Instead, regulators decided to concentrate on prohibiting the sale of tobacco products to minors, in the belief that adult retailers would be better able to cope with the responsibility of restricting sales to young persons. Therefore, possession of tobacco by a minor is not a federal offence.

The Tobacco Act, passed in April 1997, restricts the extent to which young people have access to tobacco products. Specifically, subsection 8(1) of the Act states that "no person shall furnish a tobacco product to a young person in a public place or in a place to which the public reasonably has access". A young person is defined under the Act as an individual under the age of 18 years. This places an onus on retailers to verify the age of potential purchasers. The federal government is continuing to examine options to further limit youth access to tobacco products. Several provinces have enacted similar laws to restrict youth access to tobacco products. Where the provincial law is more stringent than the federal one, the former is applied.

For instance, the legal age to buy cigarettes is 19 in the provinces of British Columbia, Ontario, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.

Q: Can smokeless tobacco be legally sold or imported in Canada?

A: Yes. Smokeless tobacco is considered a "tobacco product" under the Tobacco Act. This Act regulates the manufacture, sale, labeling and promotion of tobacco products. All types of smokeless tobacco can be imported into Canada and sold, but must be in compliance with the Act. Q: How can I get involved in lawsuits against the tobacco companies? I would like to sue them because of the diseases that cigarettes have caused to my loved ones.

A: You may wish to contact one of the health groups that are actively involved in tobacco control. A selection of these groups is listed below. They may be able to help you.

- Physicians for a Smoke-free Canada (www.smoke-free.ca) - Canadian Cancer Society (www.cancer.ca) - Non-Smokers Rights Association (www.nsra-adnf.ca) - Canadian Lung Association (www.lung.ca) Q: I sometimes see herbal cigarettes in stores. Apparently they do not contain tobacco, but are rolled in cigarette paper and have a filter. Are they covered by the Tobacco Act? A. Herbal cigarettes (that contain no tobacco) are NOT tobacco products. The Tobacco Act defines a tobacco product as including "cigarette papers, tubes and filters", but it also must include tobacco. However, if these products’ packaging were to display tobacco product-related brand elements, then the

provisions of the Act dealing with tobacco promotion would apply.

Questions related to tobacco taxes Q: How does an increase or decrease in tobacco product taxation impact smoking rates or prevalence?

A. Tobacco taxation policy remains an important element of Health Canada’s tobacco control efforts as it has clearly been shown to reduce tobacco consumption, particularly among youth. None-the-less, it is important to ensure that any increase in tax does not fuel further inter–provincial or international contraband (as experienced in 1992-1993 when more than one in three cigarettes consumed in Canada was contraband).

Q: It seems hypocritical of the government to say it is trying to eliminate smoking when it gains so much money from it through taxes.

A. At the federal level, taxes from tobacco sales are reportedly below 1% of total taxation income. The main purpose and proven result of taxes on tobacco products, and other Health Canada initiatives regarding tobacco, is to reduce and discourage the use of tobacco products.

Questions related to health effects of tobacco Q: Do some cigarettes, such has those labelled “light” or “mild” have less toxic emissions than others?

A. Cigarettes with descriptors such as “light” or “mild” are designed to have less toxic emissions, often very slight, when smoked by smoking machines under certain conditions, than other cigarettes. Unfortunately, because individual smokers smoke differently, some inhale more smoke than others. The high emissions number now listed on cigarette packages helps to provide a better indication of the level of toxic emissions that a smoker may be inhaling. [See also the previous question.]

Q: How harmful is second hand smoke to one’s health?

A. It’s a well-known fact that cigarette smoking is bad for your health, but breathing the smoke of others can also be harmful. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in men and women in Canada. Approximately 2 % of lung cancer deaths each year are thought to be caused by passive smoking.

The immediate effects of breathing second-hand smoke include an increase in

heart rate and blood pressure, and dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in the blood. The smoke from the burning end of a cigarette is filled with hundreds of dangerous chemicals and contains more tar and nicotine than the smoke that is directly inhaled.

See also: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc/tobacco/facts/index.html#ETS Q: Why is smoking addictive? How addictive is it?

A. Cigarette smoking produces a rapid distribution of nicotine to the brain.

Nicotine is absorbed through the skin and mucosal lining of the mouth and nose or by inhaling smoke into the lungs, with drug levels peaking within 10 seconds of inhalation. The acute effects of nicotine dissipate in a few minutes, causing the smoker want to continue dosing frequently throughout the day to maintain the drug's pleasurable effects and prevent withdrawal. A typical smoker will take 10 puffs on a cigarette over the 5 minute period that the cigarette is lit. Thus, a person who smokes about 1-1/2 packs (30 cigarettes) daily, gets 300 "hits" of nicotine to the brain each day. These factors contribute considerably to nicotine's highly addictive nature.

Cigar and pipe smokers, on the other hand, typically do not inhale the smoke, so nicotine is absorbed more slowly through the mucosal membranes of their mouths The nicotine in smokeless tobacco is absorbed the same way.

Recent research details how nicotine acts on the brain to produce a number of behavioural effects. One of the key findings is that nicotine activates the part of the brain that regulates feelings of pleasure: the so-called reward pathways. A key brain chemical involved in mediating the desire to consume drugs is the neurotransmitter dopamine. Research has shown that nicotine increases the levels of dopamine in the reward circuits.

Scientific research is also beginning to show that nicotine may not be the only psychoactive ingredient in tobacco. Using advanced neuron-imaging technology, scientists can see the dramatic effect of cigarette smoking on the brain and are finding smokers have a marked decrease in the levels of monoamineoxidase (MAO), an important enzyme that is responsible for breaking down dopamine. The change in MAO must be caused by some tobacco ingredient other than nicotine, since we know that nicotine itself does not dramatically alter MAO levels. The decrease in two forms of MAO, A and B, then results in higher dopamine levels. Therefore, in addition to nicotine addiction, people may continue to smoke in order to sustain high dopamine levels in their bodies.

See also: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hppb/cessation/health_facts/addictions.html Q: Why are graphic warnings on cigarette packages necessary? Don’t they intrude on smoker’s rights to enjoy their tobacco?

A. The new labels ensure that Canadians are much better informed about the many serious health hazards associated with tobacco products. The new regulations also require that smokers receive health and cessation information or information on tobacco-related diseases, on the inside of the

packaging of tobacco products they purchase.

The new labels follow approximately two years of intensive study and evaluation.

Extensive focus testing of both adults and young people provided strong evidence that the new labelling regulations will work. Each health warning and health information message has been reviewed and approved by a scientific panel.

Findings from extensive surveys among youth and adult smokers showed that the graphics are deterring people from starting to smoke. The same research revealed that a majority of Canadians of all ages, both smokers and nonsmokers, supported the proposal to display health warning graphics and risk information on tobacco products packaging. This majority also felt the federal government’s tobacco control strategies should remain a top priority and should continue to be used to discourage young people from starting to smoke, or to help them quit if they have already started.

Q: How does the smoke generated from cigarettes harm an unborn child?

A. Smoking affects every aspect of pregnancy including fertility, conception, development of the fetus, labor, and growth during childhood. If you are planning to have a baby, the best time to quit smoking is before you get pregnant.

See also: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc/tobacco/facts/health_facts/pre_postnatal.html Q: Do tobacco companies put toxic additives in their cigarettes?

A: Canadian manufacturers have publicly said that they do not generally put additives in the tobacco used in their cigarettes, except for the few additives (such as binders) used in making reconstituted tobacco. They have also indicated that they usually add a few chemicals to cigarette tobacco, such as humectants. A humectant is a substance that helps to retain moisture.

Q: How many different toxic compounds are in tobacco smoke?

A. There are more than 4,000 chemicals are generally found in tobacco smoke.

More than 50 of these are known to cause cancer. Health Canada requires manufacturers to test and report on 43 chemicals found in smoke, including the six now listed on packages.

Most of the chemicals— including carbon monoxide, benzene, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide— are formed when tobacco burns. Others, such as lead, tobacco-specific nitrosamines and nicotine, are found naturally in the tobacco and are simply released as the tobacco burns.

See also: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc/tobacco/facts/index.html#toxic Q: Why does cigarette smoking cause your teeth and fingers to get yellow?

A. The nicotine in cigarettes stains the fingers and teeth yellow. Nicotine is absorbed through the skin and the mucosal lining of the mouth and nose. It is also absorbed when you inhale smoke into your lungs.

Q: Why do your lungs turn black from cigarette smoking?

A. Tar, a component of tobacco smoke, is made up of a number of chemicals, many of which are known to cause concern. The tar, a brown sticky substance, gets lodged in the smoker’s throat and lungs, turning them black.

Tar can cause cancer of the throat and lungs.

See also: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc/tobacco/facts/index.html#toxic Q: What actually happens when tobacco is burned? What are the main chemicals released?

A: Nicotine, the main chemical responsible for inducing dependence, is found naturally in the tobacco and is released as the tobacco burns. Tobacco smoke contains over 4000 chemicals, including 50 known carcinogens. Most of these chemicals, including carbon monoxide, benzene, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide, are formed during the combustion of the tobacco. Others, such as lead, tobacco-specific nitrosamines and nicotine, are found naturally in the tobacco and are released as the tobacco burns.

See also: www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hecs-sesc/tobacco/facts/index.html#toxic