Yukon boosts smoking age to 19, creates laws on vaping to limit youth exposure
Posted October 7, 2019 2:42 pm.
Last Updated October 7, 2019 4:54 pm.
WHITEHORSE — Yukon is raising the age that its residents are allowed to smoke or vape and is proposing further limits on how vaping products can be sold, used and promoted.
The Tobacco and Vaping Products Control and Regulation Act was introduced in Yukon’s legislature on Monday and would raise the age for access to tobacco and vapour products to 19 years old from 18.
The act focuses on protecting public health, especially that of youth, and directs how vapour products would be sold, used and promoted.
Health Minister Pauline Frost says the proposed legislation is part of the territory’s ongoing efforts to discourage the use of the addictive and harmful products.
The government says the changes arise out of a public survey conducted earlier this year on proposed amendments to the current Smoke-Free Places Act.
Vaping with e-cigarettes has been linked to a mysterious and sometimes fatal lung ailment that has affected over 1,000 users in the United States and a few people in Canada.
The Canadian Press
