Tobacco and Vapour Products Program

Aims to stop youth and young adults from starting to smoke, protect people from exposure to second-hand smoke, and help smokers to quit through the BC Smoking Cessation Program and QuitNow (www.quitnow.ca). In regional health authorities, tobacco reduction coordinators focus on public awareness and education, promotion of tobacco-free living, and cessation; tobacco enforcement officers enforce retailer compliance with tobacco control laws to restrict youth access to tobacco products and to enforce retailer display restrictions. They also enforce the Tobacco Control Act and the Tobacco Control Regulations which legislate smoke-free public and work places and three-metre buffer zones around all doorways, windows and air intakes, and ban tobacco use on all public/private school grounds (with exceptions for ceremonial use in Aboriginal cultural activities).