Friday is World No Tobacco Day, an annual awareness campaign highlighting the harmful effects of smoke. But, in Alberta, cigarettes aren’t the problem.
Despite the decline, Canadian retailers are still selling billions of dollars worth of cigarettes annually.
That’s progress, compared to the previous four decades; in the 60s and 70s, it was common to smoke in office spaces, on airplanes in the 80s, and it wasn’t until 2008 that smoking in public place was banned in Alberta.
“A huge improvement from the 80s and whatnot, when over half the population would have been smokers,” explained Dr. Brett Friesen.
He says there’s been a big shift in the way tobacco is consumed.
RELATED: One in three young people in Alberta vape, health ministry says
“Sixty-nine per cent of Albertans have never smoked, which is big gains with regards to cigarette commercial tobacco smoking,” Friesen said. “But, where we’ve not been successful is with vaping products.”
There’s been a 50 per cent increase in teen vaping over the past seven years, and while the long-term effects aren’t fully known, Friesen says there’s no denying the negative impact on a population whose brains aren’t fully developed.
“The brain continues to develop until age 25,” he added. “If you start experimenting, trying vaping products with nicotine, that starts to impact the wiring, functioning within the brain and creates future issues for youth as they grow older.”
Friesen says with enticing flavours and fragrances, vaping is the new smoking for Alberta teens and is often to gateway to other formers of tobacco consumption which can lead to lung disease and cancers.
The doctor points to several resources out there to help people butt out, and stop hitting the pen, including the Canadian Lung Association, MyHealth Alberta, and behindthehaze.ca