The town of LaSalle is getting behind a local student who wants to see a ban on advertising when it comes to vaping.
Council directed administration to find out if it's possible to create a by-law banning the ads on the municipal level Tuesday night. They also agreed to send out a resolution to every municipality in Ontario asking for support in getting the Ministry of Health to act on the issue.
Sandwich Secondary School student Petar Bratic is the driving force behind the effort.
The 18-year-old told council he repeatedly encountered classmates vaping in bathrooms, but the last straw was when a close friend took up the habit.
"Realizing that when people like him have started vaping, and I'd consider him addicted to nicotine, when you see people that are addicted to nicotine, that's a problem because that wasn't the norm even a decade ago," he says. "We're reversing a trend here and that really concerned me, so I felt something needs to be said."
Bratic blames advertising promoting a safe and tasty product while ignoring it may be a stepping stone to addiction and tobacco use.
His presentation to council showed several ads in plain sight at local stores; those ads romanticizing the flavours and sleek look of vaping devices.
"That's what the research is suggesting too," says Bratic. "What I noticed is there's all kind of advertising, and that's the first problem because we don't have that advertising with tobacco, but we're seeing it with e-cigarettes."
He says vaping products were historically used to get off tobacco, but now they're being used to get young people hooked on nicotine instead.
"The tobacco companies own most of the e-cigarette companies. It doesn't take that much logic to figure out that they're actually addicting a whole generation and they're doing it legally," says Bratic.
He's already presented his case to Windsor City Council, both local school boards, and the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.
Bratic has also had conversations with New Democrat Essex MPP Taras Natyshak and Essex NDP MP Tracey Ramsey, about bringing the issue to both the provincial and federal level.
In January, a trustee with the Greater Essex County District School Board sounded the alarm bell when it comes to vaping smokeless tobacco.
Ron LeClair says trustees have been hearing from students who say vaping has become a major problem at local high schools.