Rules help address high smoking rate in North

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Smokers in Canada's North will soon be out in the cold, thanks to some new laws and regulations limiting where they can light up.

The toughest stand against smoking is being taken in Nunavut, where the territorial legislature passed a new Tobacco Control Act in early November.

Under the act, it will be illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age or 19, or even to someone who looks like they might be under age unless that person provides identification proving he or she is of age.

The act also regulates how tobacco products can be displayed and where they can be sold, prohibiting tobacco sales in or near health facilities, day cares, nursing homes, seniors homes or pharmacies. It also requires any retailer selling tobacco products to post health warnings. The act prohibits the sale of cigarettes in packages containing fewer than 20 cigarettes, and places a ban on the use of vending machines to sell tobacco products.

Smoking in the workplace and within a three-metre radius of any entrance to or exit from a workplace is also banned under the act. The exceptions to the workplace ban are in restaurants or bars, home-based businesses, hotel or motel rooms designated as smoking rooms, and special designated smoking areas in homes for the elderly. However the act stipulates that two years after the act becomes law, restaurants and bars will be removed from the list of exceptions and will also have to comply.

Smoking in any public place, or within a three-metre radius of any entry or exit is also banned under the act, with the smoking ban around school doors increased to a 15-metre radius.

But smokers who think the new act means they have a couple of years before they have to butt out in their favorite bar or restaurant also have new regulations from the Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) to contend with. The Environmental Tobacco Smoke Worksite Regulations were approved in late November 2003, and will come into effect on May 1.

Andy Wong, chairperson of the Workers' Compensation Board of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, explained what the new regulation will mean.

"It encompasses both territories. It applies to all enclosed work sites, meaning a building. And what the regulation is all about is that it would be a ban on smoking in enclosed work sites," he said.

"Now, for clarity, enclosed work sites would also include a bar or a lounge or a restaurant, as well as offices and so on and so forth. So there would be a total ban on all smoking buildings."

The new regulations will be enforced by the safety officers that are already on the job enforcing other workplace safety acts. The board is also working to establish partnerships with other enforcement agencies, such as municipalities that are enforcing their own smoking bylaws.

The two territories governed by the regulations have the highest smoking rates of any area in Canada. In the N.W.T. about 42 per cent of the adult population smokes, and in Nunavut about 48 per cent of the population are smokers, more than double the overall smoking rate for Canada, which sits at 21.5 per cent. But Wong stressed the regulations weren't created to cut down on the numbers of smokers in the North, but as a measure designed to improve workplace safety.

"I think a number of the issues have to do with worker safety at the workplace. As we all know, in fact it's more and more commonly accepted now, that medically speaking, second-hand smoke is a workplace hazard. In fact it is a medical hazard. And because second-hand smoke still exists in certain enclosed work sites, for example bars and lounges most commonly, we came to the conclusion that workers in that industry were not protected, unlike workers in, say, an office building," he said.

Smoking is already banned in all workplaces except bars and lounges, Wong explained. "It was our opinion that those workers should also be extended the protection that exists for other workers, and hence we came out with aregulation which broadly is enforced to all work sites," he said.

"The Tobacco Act essentially says the same thing. The Tobacco Act says that smoking is banned in all enclosed work places. I think they use almost the same words. Now the only different between the Nunavut Tobacco Control Act is that they do have a two years holiday for bars and lounges and private clubs. So in other words, even though the Tobacco Control Act has been passed, the bars, lounges and private clubs, like the Elks and so on, can continue to allow smoking for the next two years and then the provision that allows them the holiday will expire and they will have to comply. However, the interesting thing is the Nunavut Tobacco Control Act states that if another legislation comes into force and is more restrictive, then the Nunavut Tobacco Control Act would give way. In other words, our Workers' Comp. regulation will supercede the Nunavut Tobacco Control Act as of May 1, 2004, and the bars, lounges and restaurants and private clubs ... in Nunavut would have to ban smoking."

While the Workers' Compensation Board of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut isn't the first WCB to bring in regulations limiting smoking in bars and restaurants, it is the first to place a total ban on smoking in these workplaces, Wong said.

"The Workers' Comp. in B.C. does have similar regulations. However they do allow ventilated smoking rooms in restaurants and bars. Further to that, they do allow the workers to go in there during 20 per cent of their shift. So they have similar regulations, but they don't go as far as ours do.

"When we held our consultations this spring, we had representation from the hospitality industry, which basically are the bars and lounges from Yellowknife. And they were quite vocal that they wanted to see a ventilated space option in our regulation. And the board of directors studied the issue and basically our conclusion was that the ventilated space option does not fully protect workers rom exposure. So we basically didn't allow for a ventilated space option," he said.

"We're just trying to protect workers, that's all."

While workers in the Yukon don't have the same protection from second hand smoke in the workplace that will be coming into effect in Nunavut and the Northwest Territories, the issue of workplace air quality is something the Yukon Workers' Compensation Health and Safety Board will be looking at in 2004, explained Becky Striegler, public relations liaison for the board.

"To address smoking in the workplace, and indoor air quality in general, which of course that would fall into that for sure, is in the plan to address one way or another. We haven't definitely made a commitment to regulation, but to look at options around what we can do to improve workplace safety in those areas," Striegler said.

Meanwhile, in the Northwest Territories, where the new WCB regulations are also in effect, the government has begun looking into whether a territorial law controlling tobacco use is needed.

A public consultation on the issue was held to get input on the matter, with the results showing there is support among the public for such legislation.