Lung Sask. celebrates 20 years of public smoking ban

A man holds a lit cigarette while smoking in San Francisco, Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

Public spaces in Saskatchewan looked and smelled very different two decades ago before a smoking ban came into effect.

“Young people are growing up not having ever remembered when smoking was generally accepted in public places,” Erin Kuan, president and CEO for Lung Saskatchewan said. “My parents’ generation grew up where it was very socially acceptable, it was the norm. More people smoked them then.”

The ban on smoking in public spaces was implemented in January of 2005, with a two month grace period.

Kuan went on to say that the public ban was imposed for a variety of health reasons, but the two main ones were to protect people who did not smoke from the effects of second-hand smoke, and to de-normalize the public perception that everyone smokes.

The goal of Lung Saskatchewan is rooted in both education and policy change, improving lung health one breath at a time, noting that can mean different things to different people.

“If you are someone living with advanced lung disease, your best breath might be very different from someone who has never lived with lung disease or has never smoked,” she explained.

“We want to meet people absolutely where they’re at. I would love to see a world where we think about a tobacco free generation. I think that’s absolutely possible,” she added.

Kuan said the tobacco industry has done harm in several ways.

“In targeting youth and in and in targeting adults, but also in the taxes and things that are earned off of tobacco retailers are seen as significant income for government,” she said.

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The CEO went on to say that while the battle against cigarettes is promising, the rising use of vapes and e-cigarettes is proving to be a big challenge.

“We have seen smoking rates lower overall in Canada, which is a great thing. But what we are seeing, unfortunately, is an incredible rise in rates of vaping, particularly among young people,” she said.

While there are regulations surrounding the sale of these products, Kuan expressed that many retailers are not diligent in verifying the age of their customers. Vaping does differ from cigarettes; however, the products have not been around long enough for studies to determine the long-term health effects.

“At the end of the day, your lungs are only built to inhale clean, fresh air. They are not built to inhale tobacco or other smoke products,” Kuan explained. “So sometimes we see marketing that may allude people to believe that vaping isn’t as toxic as smoking....But the long term effects, we don’t know just yet. And that’s what’s really scary.”

“But in the interim, we know that there are chemicals like zinc and aluminum and tin and just so many terrible things that are in vape chemicals.”

No matter the product, or the length one has been using it, Lung Saskatchewan is a resource for anyone looking to make a healthy lifestyle change. Kuan urges anyone looking for some help quitting, to visit their website.

“We understand how hard it is to quit a lifetime habit. When you have grown up with, maybe not the information to make those choices and life events happen, that’s okay. The important thing is that you take steps to start mitigating. And when people have information, they can make more informed decisions, and often times have much better long-term outcomes,” she said.