Health Canada still isn’t enforcing ­limits it set in 2009 when it banned sale of e-cigarettes that contained nicotine or were marketed with claims of health benefits. Big Tobacco, though, has swooped in to drive sales of the smokes that a year ago were a novelty item but now are widely available in convenience stores and gas stations. Jonathan Sher reports

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Electronic cigarettes may prove a saviour for smokers or a gateway to a deadly habit — the scientific verdict is far from decided.

But Health Canada seems to have dithered while Big Tobacco has swooped in to drive the sale of e-cigarettes that a year ago were a novelty item and now are widely available in Canadian convenience stores and gas stations.

“When we’ve got the bottomless financial resources of Big Tobacco . . . the sky is the limit,” said Melodie Tilson, policy director for the Non-Smokers’ Rights Association.

The world’s biggest tobacco companies have or are developing e-cigarettes or have bought companies that make that product.

But while the industry has raced ahead, Health Canada still isn’t enforcing the basic limits it imposed in 2009, when it prohibited the sale of ­e-cigarettes that either contain the addictive drug nicotine or are marketed with claims of health benefits.

“In my own building, a block and a half from Parliament, there are (illegal e-cigarettes) being sold,” Tilson said.

Public health officials in London are worried, too: They reported illegal sales in flea markets to Health Canada and this month stepped up efforts to let doctors and smokers know not to believe the marketing claims.

“It’s such an unregulated product,” said Linda Stobo, who heads the effort by the Middlesex-­London Health Unit to crack down on those who sell cigarettes illegally and to persuade smokers to quit and non-smokers not to start.

Tilson is cautiously optimistic that regulated products may prove helpful to smokers looking to quit or cut back.

A clinical trial published this month in the Lancet medical journal showed e-cigarettes with precise amounts of nicotine were more effective than a nicotine patch and no more harmful — but a much more substantial trial is needed.

Until science passes judgment, Health Canada must enforce the law and create new ones that restrict e-cigarettes in the same way as their tobacco sibling, Tilson said.

For now, young teenagers buy them from countertop displays. “The issue has just exploded,” Tilson said.

A Health Canada official was asked mid-afternoon Monday if it had taken action in London against market vendors but wasn’t able to get answers before day’s end.

jonathan.sher@sunmedia.ca

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SOMETIME ILLEGAL

Health Canada bars sale of e-cigarettes that have nicotine or are marketed with claims of health benefits.

Critics say there’s little enforcement and illegal e-cigarettes are sold a block and a half from Parliament.

It’s still legal to sell them without nicotine or health claims.

It’s also legal to use them where tobacco cigarettes are barred, at a public facility, for example.

PROS AND CONS

PRO

Other tools to help smokers quit often fail

A clinical trial published this month in the British medical journal the Lancet found e-cigarettes somewhat more effective than the nicotine patch in helping smokers quit or at least smoke less

E-cigarettes might ween smokers off nicotine while fulfilling their need to hold something and inhale when they feel an urge coming.

CON

The Lancet trial involved 657 smokers and so its results, while promising, are hardly conclusive. More research is needed.

E-cigarettes aren’t subject to study controls: nicotine levels vary and Chinese makers may use other, possibly harmful chemicals. Regulation is almost non-existent.

Public health officials fear they might serve as a gateway to real cigarettes for young non-smokers who can buy them without age restriction and smoke them where real cigarettes aren’t allowed.

LOCAL CRACKDOWN

Vendors have been seen selling e-cigarettes with nicotine at Gibraltar Trade Centre in London, Trail’s End Farmers Market east of the city and a market in Aylmer

Local public health reported sales to Health Canada.

It’s not clear how or if Health Canada cracked down on vendors.

HERE'S SMOKE IN YOUR EYES

London realtor George Georgopoulos quit smoking ­cigarettes seven years ago, so when he reaches for an electronic cigar, it’s for one purpose only: To get a rise out of people who think he’s illegally lighting up.

That was the reaction last week at the local United Way’s kickoff lunch for fundraising when he pulled out a stogie — and for show — a lighter.

“I just do this as a prank,” said Georgopoulos, who may have kicked his cigarette habit, but is still addicted to publicity.

His e-cigar, called “the Cuban,” costs less than $20 in the U.S., lasts about 1,500 puffs and contains a solution that is 1.8% nicotine — the latter making it illegal to sell in Canada.