The Canadian Cancer Society is calling on all political parties to immediately adopt legislation to target youth vaping and protect youth from becoming addicted to nicotine. This call comes from growing concerns about the rapid increase in youth vaping as reflected in the 2020-21 Youth and Young Adult Vaping Survey of New Brunswick, a survey of youth aged 16-24. The lead author of the Canada-wide survey is Dr. Mohammed Al-Hamdani of the Lung Association of Nova Scotia. The survey was conducted to better understand vaping behaviour, experiences, and product preferences of regular e-cigarette users among New Brunswick’s youth.

The survey results among New Brunswick youth indicate that 92% of participants currently prefer using flavoured vape juices, and 90% began vaping using a flavoured vape juice. Of New Brunswick youth participants who prefer flavoured vape juices, 48% reported they would not continue to vape if they could not purchase flavoured juices. Of those surveyed, 88.4% reported currently using vape juice containing nicotine and 61.1% of participants that consumed nicotine products used the highest permitted nicotine concentration (50-60 mg/mL). Survey results indicated 22.5% of participants reported purchasing their vaping device from a friend and 89.1% of participants reported offering their e-cigarette to someone else to use.