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Image Credit: THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Nam Y. Huh, File
October 11, 2019 - 4:52 PM
Central Okanagan school officials are taking a no-tolerance approach to vaping.
There’s a no-vape zone around all school property and if staff members see vaping products, they’ve been instructed that they may confiscate them to turn in to the RCMP.
School officials are also taking their concerns about the health risks related to vaping off-campus and trying to get all levels of government to act.
In a letter to parents, Kevin Kaardal, superintendent of schools, said the board met with municipal governments to express concerns about the development of bylaws that prevent advertising and targeting sales to minors.
The school board is also urging provincial and federal governments to implement tougher regulations on the sale to minors of e-cigarettes and vapour products.
Kaardal is trying to make this an election issue, to boot, writing a letter to all the federal election candidates in the region, asking them how, if elected as MP, they would address the serious danger that vaping poses to children and, in particular, the marketing of vaping products to children.
In B.C., vapour products are regulated in the same way as tobacco products are.
Tobacco and vapour products cannot be sold to minors or promoted publicly. They cannot be used in public buildings and workplaces, near doorways or air intakes of public buildings, or on school property.
Healthlink B.C. says, for smokers, vaping is less harmful than cigarettes, but vaping still exposes users to chemicals that can cause lung damage.
That idea is being challenged with a rise in the number of mystery, vape-related ailments being reported.
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