He was circling in front of Health Canada's massive bureaucracy, but he hopes to find a solution. Pierre-Yves Chaput, a Quebec manufacturer of electronic cigarette liquids, has just applied for certification as a natural health product.
The laws of Canada and Quebec are silent with respect to the electronic cigarette with nicotine. Governments are well aware of this, but are slow to act concretely. In the meantime, for lack of supervision, it is still possible to vape in several public places and, on the market, charlatans and makers of questionable potions and poor quality still have the free field.
There is nothing specific to the manufacture and sale of these e-liquids with nicotine, except that nicotine is regulated. This allows Health Canada to say that nicotine e-liquids "fall within the scope of the Food and Drugs Act and require Health Canada approval", a seal that no one has yet obtained. "As a result, they are illegal," says the federal agency.
When manufacturers or sellers are singled out by Health Canada, the industry responds that the e-cigarette does not meet the criteria to be considered a drug and is an alternative to tobacco. We are lost in conjectures. And we lose its Latin when trying to navigate it.
That's what happened to Pierre-Yves Chaput, who owns an e-liquids and e-juice shop on Rue Saint-Laurent in Montreal. He makes his own juices according to the highest standards. According to him, time is running out to regulate the manufacture of these juices before the "far west" is imposed even more, to the detriment of serious players.
He tried to obtain approval, except that the approach, according to his saying, was squaring the circle. No protocol is provided for the approval of such liquids intended for the vape, according to him. "They did not want to tell me what to file first, how to do it. I do not know what they are asking for.
He asked for an exemption and went to other steps to get the answer that he needed a natural product number. At the beginning of January, he prepared and deposited a monograph, a complete technical sheet, his e-liquids to obtain this number. In his opinion, this is the first serious step of homologation by a manufacturer.
"We must stop turning a blind eye to what we offer in terms of e-liquids and e-cigarettes. We do not know the source or the exact composition of the products we import, "regrets Mr. Chaput. With his initiative a year ago, he also wants to introduce rigorous manufacturing standards so that there is ultimately some control. Right now, anyone can do anything, insists Mr. Chaput.
He should have news of his request in early February.
In Quebec City as in Ottawa, it is recommended not to vapot of nicotine since the data on the electronic cigarette are insufficient. But for the pulmonologist Gaston Ostiguy, fervent defender of the electronic cigarette, the State goes there of an excess of prudence. "We know that the health effects of electronic cigarettes are 500 1000 times lower than those of conventional cigarettes," he told La Presse. He will file Friday the results of a study he conducted claiming that 43% of smokers converted to e-cigarettes had successfully quit after 30 days, while the success rate with other methods was only 31%.
Dr. Ostiguy also advocates for better supervision of manufacturers so that smokers who want to stop can have quality products at their disposal.Source : journaldemontreal.com
