A ban on the promotion of vaping products in Ontario convenience stores is long overdue but doesn’t go far enough to counter the growing problem of teen vaping, health advocates say as convenience store owners and a vaping industry association cry foul.

The Jan. 1 ban announced by the provincial government is only the first move, Health Minister Christine Elliott reassured Ontarians on Friday as she singled out flavoured vaping juices and online sales to minors without checking for age of majority as the next potential targets.

“There’s more that we plan to do,” Elliot said.

Vaping Industry Trade Association president Daniel David said he supports measures to curb youth access to vaping products but called the ban a “knee jerk and extremely premature reaction.”

Dave Bryans of the Ontario Convenience Stores Association said it means an “unlevel playing field.” Bryans said corner stores are being unfairly targeted while vaping companies like Juul can still advertise on billboards, in subways and transit shelters, and there are no controls on online sales.

If there’s an advertising and promotion ban, “it should happen everywhere, not just in one channel,” he added, noting the government already trusts the convenience store sector to sell lottery tickets and tobacco with appropriate age checks.

Health groups called on the government to extend the promotion and advertising ban to billboards and other signs, to act quickly with a crackdown on vaping flavours aimed at teens and online sales to teens under 19, and to restrict sales of vaping products to specialty vaping stores where patrons must be 19 to enter.

“Youth vaping is increasing so quickly we can’t wait,” said Rob Cunningham, senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society in Ottawa, joining the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco in calling for the age of majority for vaping and smoking to be increased to 21.

“We need to seriously think about that,” said OCAT’s Michael Perley. “That helps reduce the rate of initiation of young people.”

New Democrat MPP France Gelinas said the Ford government made a “bad public health decision” by not sticking with a vaping promotion ban the previous Liberal administration had slated for July 1, 2018 and urged Elliott not to wait until January for the prohibition to take effect.

“Why can’t this happen on Monday? Nothing good comes from having a generation of kids addicted to nicotine,” she added in a telephone interview from her Sudbury-area riding of Nickel Belt.

“The plot is not hard to unravel here. When you have kids addicted, you have customers for life.”

Elliott acknowledged the rate of teen vaping has increased “exponentially,” with a 74 per cent increase from 2017 to 2018 alone. Updated statistics are expected soon.

“I’ve heard from a number of parents who have told me they’ve been told by their children that it is happening throughout all of the schools — some schools so badly that they’re thinking of closing washrooms because there’s so much vaping that’s going on,” Elliot said on CP24.

“We know that vaping products can now be placed inside clothing, that vaping can happen right inside a classroom or any social activity so it’s ramping up considerably.”

Under the promotion ban, posters for vaping products now shown prominently in store windows will have to be taken down and vaping products stored behind closed doors, as cigarettes have been since 2005.

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But stores can still display a notice indicating they sell vaping products, confirmed Elliott, who in late September directed hospitals to begin reporting case of vaping illness after a London, Ont., teen was put on life support and the United States saw a sharp increase in vaping sicknesses and deaths.

Health Canada says the main liquids in vaping products are considered safe for use in many consumer products but warns “the long-term safety of inhaling the substances in vaping products is unknown and continues to be assessed” because heating them to a vapour can change their characteristics.