The Saskatchewan government is planning to treat e-cigarettes and vaporizers much like tobacco, limiting where they’re sold and how they’re advertised while setting the age limit at 18.

Health Minister Jim Reiter introduced amendments to the Tobacco Control Act on Tuesday. If passed, the new rules will come into effect in the spring, but Reiter said they’re only a first step.

Notably, the bill won’t explicitly ban flavoured vaping products. It would allow the government to restrict them through regulation. Reiter said that will come after a consultation period.

“You see flavours that are just very obviously targeted to kids. When there’s flavours like cotton candy and bubble gum, that’s not targeted at a 40-year-old, that’s targeted at a kid,” he said. “So I’m concerned about that.”

The bill retains the existing 18-year minimum age set out in federal legislation, even though some provinces have opted to bump it up to 19. Reiter said it made sense to “closely align” age restrictions with tobacco rather than alcohol or cannabis.

The proposed vaping restrictions will closely mirror tobacco in other areas, including on advertising and displays.

“If you walk into a convenience store, the vaping products are going to have to be behind a screen,” Reiter said. “They can’t have advertising when you walk in. The same restrictions as tobacco on where you can vape, it’s the same as where you can smoke. I would say, very broadly speaking, what you’re seeing is it being treated exactly like tobacco.”

He noted that smokers use vaping as a smoking cessation tool, making regulating it a “complex” issue. His number-one priority is to keep vaporizers and e-cigarettes out of the hands of youth, amid reports of an “epidemic” of youth vaping.

If passed, the amendments would ban displays of vaping and e-cigarette products in stores that young people have access to, while prohibiting sales at amusements parks, arcades and theatres. Tobacco enforcement officers would see their authority expanded to enforce the rules.

The proposed law would ban vaping in and around public buildings like schools. Municipalities like Regina and Saskatoon already do so through bylaws that widely restrict where people can vape.

Jennifer May, vice president of community engagement for the Lung Association of Saskatchewan, called vape products “the new cigarette 2.0.” She called Reiter’s bill “wonderful,” and pledged to work with government on the flavour regulations.

“It’s the same nicotine addiction, just the new, modern, cooler look,” she said. “So I’m happy that the government’s looking at regulating the same way as they do tobacco.”

She came to the Saskatchewan Legislative Assembly along with a group of students involved in the association’s Youth 4 Change initiative, which has been advocating for the amendments.

Darshana Lanke, a Grade 11 student at Walter Murray Collegiate in Saskatoon, said high school students are subject to peer pressure that encourages them to vape.

“The culture around vaping is very normalized,” she said. “It’s very difficult to deal with that because you’re going to school to learn, and then when you have people who normalize it, it can be difficult for your education.”

In her view, a lot of people feel like it’s a safer alternative to smoking.

But respirologist Mark Fenton said research and publicly reported cases are starting to raise serious concerns about the health impacts of vaping.

“This is something that we don’t really fully understand how it affects the lung,” he said in the rotunda of the legislature. “We’re starting to see evidence that it has negative effects on the lung, both in the short term and the long term.”

Fenton pointed to recent cases, notably in the United States, of people ending up in intensive care units or even dying because of severe respiratory illnesses connected to vaping. He is aware of two recent cases in Saskatchewan of “possible or probable lung injury related to vaping.”

He also mentioned research that shows lung toxins in vaping products may reduce immunity and lead to more aggressive lung infections.

His message to youth is simple.

“Don’t do it. Do not vape,” Fenton said. “The companies that make it tell you that it’s to quit smoking. So if you don’t smoke, don’t do it.”

In his ideal world, vaping wouldn’t be legal at all. Barring that, he supports raising the age to 19 or higher. But he still celebrated the bill as a first step.

“It’s a great day for kids in this province,” he said.

The NDP has previously pushed for banning flavours, and health critic Vicki Mowat said the party will be watching the regulations closely.

“The bill doesn’t go far enough,” she said.

Eight provinces have already passed their own laws to restrict vaping, with many imposing limits similar to those Reiter outlined on Tuesday.