New Study Confirms: Flavoured Vaping Products Helps Canadian Adults Quit Smoking

/EIN News/ -- Ottawa, ON, Jan. 27, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- A recent analysis of the 2022 International Tobacco Control Four Country Smoking and Vaping Survey published by the Public Health Agency of Canada in the Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention Journal (HPCDP), January 2025, has shed light on the behaviours of Canadian adults attempting to quit smoking. The study, focusing on 1,771 adults who currently smoke or have recently quit, provides valuable insights into the prevalence and patterns of nicotine vaping products (NVPs) and the effectiveness in helping people to quit smoking.  

Highlights: 

• One in five Canadian adults who tried to quit smoking used an NVP during their most recent attempt; fruit flavours, pre-filled cartridges, or pods were most used. 

 • 68% of Canadian adults who attempted to quit smoking used flavours that would be prohibited under Health Canada’s flavour restrictions proposal. 

 • There were no differences in flavours or devices used most between those who reported quitting. 

The study highlights evidence suggesting that e-liquid flavours, other than tobacco, mint, and menthol, play an important role in the initiation, maintenance, acceptability, appeal, and satisfaction of vaping. The study also found that adults specifically seeking to quit smoking showed a strong preference for flavoured NVPs that would be restricted under the current proposal by Health Canada’s flavour ban policy and already implemented by select provinces and territories.

These findings emphasize the importance of understanding the role of flavoured NVPs in helping adult Canadians increase their chances to quit smoking. 

The survey strongly recommends that public health authorities and governments avoid implementing policies that ban flavoured NVP products, citing the need for further research into the role of flavours, particularly in supporting smoking cessation efforts.  

“Today, there are 1.9 million Canadian adults that are vaping instead of smoking, with 90% relying on flavours beyond tobacco, mint and menthol. It is important to keep as many Canadians as possible from returning to cigarettes so Canada can meet its goal of a less than 5% smoking rate by 2035,” said Sam Tam, President of the Canadian Vaping Association. “We must stop the misinformation that flavour bans are the only solution to stop youth from vaping, when this product is age restricted to adults.  We need stronger enforcement to raise the level of compliance, not bans. Reducing smoking rates in Canada must remain a top public health priority, as this study demonstrates. If achieving this means adopting less harmful alternatives like nicotine vaping products, we must be truthful to Canadians that it's better for them to vape than to smoke."
 
For more detailed information, please refer to the full study here: 
https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/reports-publications/health-promotion-chronic-disease-prevention-canada-research-policy-practice/vol-45-no-1-2025/nicotine-vaping-products-during-attempt-quit-smoking-adults-findings-survey.html 

Ashley Bouman
                    The Canadian Vaping Association 
                    abouman@thecva.org