P.E.I. teen tobacco use on the rise, according to Statistics Canada survey

P.E.I. has the lowest smoking rate in Canada, but is struggling to keep tobacco out of the hands of young people, according to the latest tobacco, alcohol and drugs survey from Statistics Canada.

The survey was done in 2017.

The survey found 11.8 per cent of Islanders were current smokers, as compared to a national average of 15.1 per cent. But among 15- to 19-year-olds the rate for Islanders was 15.8 per cent, double the national rate of 7.9 per cent, and up four percentage points since 2013.

Among the provinces only Saskatchewan had a higher rate among teens, at 21.9 per cent.

"Teenage smoking can be very sensitive and can change quite quickly, so an increase in teen smoking has to be of concern to us," said Rob Cunningham, a senior policy analyst with the Canadian Cancer Society.

"There's a lot that P.E.I. can do that has not yet been done."

Cunningham made a number of suggestions:

• Raise tax rates to be equal to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
• Ban smoking on patios.
• Increase purchase age to 21 from 19.
• Reduce the number of locations where tobacco is sold.

Cunningham said price is a major disincentive for smokers, and the taxes per carton on P.E.I. are $2 lower than in New Brunswick and $6 lower than in Nova Scotia.

Statistics Canada cautioned some of the results come with a relatively large margin of error. The margin of error for Canada are 1.5 percentage points. The error varies province by province. For Prince Edward Island it was 3.6 percentage points for the whole population and 6.6 percentage points for youth.

The survey reached a total of 16,349 Canadians, and 5,072 youth. On P.E.I., it reached 1,080 people including 330 youth.

At publication time, the P.E.I. Department of Health had not responded to a request for reaction.

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With files from Laura Chapin