Global Courant 2023-05-18 04:59:19
Health Canada says there is a five percent reduction in vaping among high school students in grades 10 to 12 during the 2021-2022 school year compared to 2018-19.
The data comes from the Canadian student research on tobacco, alcohol and drugs (CSTADS) conducted between September 2021 and June 2022 in nine Canadian provinces.
According to the Federal Health Service, a total of 61,096 students in grades 7 to 12 were involved in the study, not including students in New Brunswick who declined to participate.
The data shows that students in grades 7 to 9 show a greater willingness to continue vaping, as evidenced by the minimal one percent decline from 11 percent in 2018-19 to 10 percent in 2021-22.
The data also shows that smoking among students in grades 7 through 12 fell from 19 percent in 2018-2019 to 14 percent in 2021-2022.
The study found that 17 percent of students in grades 7 to 12 had tried at least one tobacco product in 2021-2022.
When it comes to alcohol, 39 percent of students in grades 7 through 12 said they had consumed alcohol in the past 12 months in 2021-2022, a drop of five percent compared to 2018-19.
After alcohol, cannabis, including marijuana, hashish and hash oil, has the second highest prevalence of use among college students in Canada.
According to the study, 18 percent of students in grades 7-12 reported using cannabis in the past year, unchanged from 2018-19.
When college students were asked about using 10 different types of illicit drugs, seven percent said they had used one or more illicit drugs in the past 12 months.
Health Canada says the majority of students bought their cigarettes and other tobacco products mostly from social sources, such as friends and family, rather than through retail outlets.
The Canadian Cancer Society said it is urging the federal government to implement “immediately” a comprehensive ban on flavors in e-cigarettes in an effort to deter young people from vaping.
“While it is good that youth vaping rates have not increased further in this study, youth vaping rates remain unacceptably high. Much more needs to be done.” said the Canadian Cancer Society in a press release published Tuesday.
“Note that the CSTADS survey only looks at students in grades 7-12. It doesn’t look at young adults. Students who vape can become addicted, age and continue to vape as they mature. There are now more than 500,000 Canadians who vape and have never smoked.”
Coverage for this story was paid for through the Meta-funded The Afghan Journalists in Residence Project.
