Vaping products should be treated more like tobacco products, the city’s board of health decided unanimously on Monday, endorsing recommendations aimed at making it harder for teens to buy and use the aerosols that contain nicotine and taste like candy or fruit.

“I can attest that this is absolutely an epidemic,” said Toronto School Board Trustee Stephanie Donaldson, who is a member of Toronto’s board of health. “Our kids definitely need us to do something on this.”

The recommendations include that the province tax vaping products.

Nickel Belt MPP and Ontario NDP health critic France Gélinas attended the board meeting Monday to urge members to take action. Gélinas is trying to fight vaping with a private member’s bill at Queen’s Park.

“I fully respect that this is not my jurisdiction, but when I saw this motion in front of the board, I thought that I had to come speak to it,” said Gélinas, who also described vaping as an epidemic.

“We all know that a young person’s brain gets addicted to nicotine pretty quick,” said Gélinas, who said that many of the children she speaks to in schools are unaware that the products contain nicotine and can be addictive, or didn’t know that when they started.

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She successfully urged the board to go further with their original recommendations by encouraging members to adopt a recommendation that the products be taxed, because young people are extremely price-sensitive.

“You are the cream of the crop when it comes to public health, you have set policies before that many others in Ontario follow,” Gélinas told the board. “You will set an example for other health units and other boards of health, but you will also protect thousands and tens of thousands of youth from becoming addicted to nicotine.”

The other recommendations adopted included asking the province to amend the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017, to bring aerosolized liquid products more closely in alignment with tobacco products by banning flavours, with the exception of tobacco flavour, in stores accessible to minors; calling on the federal government to restrict advertising; and asking for a report on amending existing City of Toronto bylaws that prohibit smoking to incorporate similar prohibitions on vape products.

The issue now moves to city council.

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