Illegal tobacco,vape products are down

GUELPH – There are fewer illegal tobacco and vape products in the community, which is quite a feather in the caps of inspectors at Wellington-Dufferin-Guelph Public Health, the board of health heard on May 6.

“We don’t often see the fruits of our labour,” director of operations, health protection Phil Wong told board members. 

But their dogged work, and follow-up visits to offenders have seen compliance vastly improve in recent years, he said.

In 2023 public health seized $45,000 worth of illegal tobacco and vape products over eight months. In 2024 illegal product seizures declined to $9,000 and in 2025, just $2,300 of product was seized.

The number of inspections has remained steady during that time, indicating that compliance has improved and non-compliance has decreased by 50 per cent, Wong said.

But it’s not all good news.

Specialty vape shops make up 50% of offenders, “and 75% of repeat offenders are vape stores,” Wong said.

He added public health issues licences to vape stores, and repeat offenders won’t be issued a licence.

He said public health is creating an e-learning portal to inform vape stores of the rules and responsibilities before they get their licence.

Because there are batteries in single-use disposable vapes, there’s a problem for public health and the broader public in general in how to safely dispose of them.

They pose a fire hazard and waste disposal companies don’t want anything to do with them, Wong said.

“We’re developing guidelines on how to get rid of these,” he said. 

“We have tons of them in the evidence locker.”