E-cigarettes to be banned in City of Toronto workplaces over concerns of ‘cancer-causing chemicals’

Toronto City Council voted Monday to prohibit the use of electronic cigarettes at city workplaces, to change contracting rules to “support the acceleration” of the Basement Flooding Protection Program and to approve a funding adjustment in order to build a new fire station.

The move to ban e-cigarettes at City of Toronto workplaces comes within weeks of a warning from a major reinsurer of a possible long-term liability risk from lawsuits arising from e-cigarettes, if they turn out to be more harmful to health than thought.

The ban by City Council was made at the behest of Toronto’s Board of Health, which is comprised of six city councillors, six citizen representatives and a school board nominee.

The motion supported Monday by full council also included a recommendation for the city’s separate agencies and corporations (such as the police, parking authority, Toronto Transit Commission, arenas and the electrical utility) to enact a similar ban in their workplaces.

Toronto Public Health, a city division that reports to the Board of Health, earlier reviewed the health effects of e-cigarettes.

“E-cigarette parts, liquid and vapour may include variable levels of cancer-causing chemicals and harmful ingredients. These include several types of tobacco-specific nitrosamines, carbonyl compounds (e.g. aldehyde, acetaldehyde, acrolein), and volatile organic compounds,” wrote Dr. David McKeown, Toronto’s medical officer of health, in an Aug. 1 report to the Board of Health.

“Although these chemicals exist in significantly lower levels in e-cigarettes than in conventional cigarettes, the long-term health effects of using e-cigarettes remain unknown.”

Dr. McKeown’s report was released less than a month after Swiss Re identified e-cigarettes as a long-term liability risk with a “medium impact.”

If e-cigarettes “are proven to be more harmful to health than presumed today, respiratory diseases or other health problems may increase and trigger liability claims similar to tobacco claims in the past,” the Zurich-based reinsurer stated in the July report. “Concerns focus on e-liquids, the key ingredients in e-cigarettes, which are powerful neurotoxins. When e-liquids are ingested or absorbed through the skin, they can cause vomiting and seizures and can even be lethal.”

Toronto’s Board of Health earlier recommended that the Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care amend the Smoke-Free Ontario Act and Regulations to “prohibit e-cigarette use wherever smoking is prohibited” and to impose restrictions on e-cigarette sales.

The board also made several recommendations to the federal health minister, including restrictions on advertising and regulations of all “e-cigarettes, cartridges and liquids to ensure manufacturing consistency and accurate labelling.” The board also recommends that the federal government “develop, as appropriate, a regulatory framework for the possible sale of e-cigarettes as part of a tobacco smoking cessation strategy.”

Other matters considered by Toronto City Council Monday included the basement flooding program (which is intended to improve the sewer system and overland drainage routes), construction of a new fire station in an “under-serviced” area near Highway 27 and Rexdale Blvd (about five kilometres northeast of Lester B. Pearson International Airport) and an increase this past winter in injuries to employees caused by slips, trips and falls on ice.

Council received Monday that First Quarter 2014 Occupational Health and Safety Report.

“There was a 153% increase in falls due to icy conditions and half of the critical injuries were fractures as a result of slips and falls on the ice,” commented City Manager Joseph P. Pennachetti and Bruce Anderson, executive director of human resources, in a July 7 staff report. That report compared lost-time injuries in Q1 2014 to those in Q1 2013.

“Increases in overall injuries, including musculoskeletal disorders, were most notable in operating divisions whose activities were impacted by the effects of the storm and continued freezing temperatures.”

City Council voted Monday in favour of one measure — recommended by a council committee — to “support the Acceleration of the Basement Flooding Protection Program.” That motion appoints “professional engineering consultants as agents of the City” to approve certain construction change orders of $25,000 or less.

Last December, City Council voted to spend $61.3 million on the Basement Flooding Protection Program in 2014.

“In combination with the 2015-2023 Capital Plan, Toronto Water expects to spend $962.0 million on basement flooding relief over the period 2014-2023,” stated Michael D’Andrea, the city’s executive director, engineering and construction service, in a July 29 staff report.

In that report, D’Andrea noted that about 30% of the work load of city contract managers “is spent solely on the review and approval of change orders.

“Therefore, assigning the responsibility of “more routine, low risk, change orders to the engineering consultant, would free up valuable, senior staff resources, necessary to properly manage the complexities associated with an expanded Basement Flooding Protection Program.”

The BFPP includes funding for a subsidy for homeowners “to install flood protection devices including a backwater valve, a sump pump, and pipe severance and capping of the home’s storm sewer or external weeping tile connection.”

When that program was established in 2006, the city “identified 31 chronic basement flooding study areas,” D’Andrea wrote in the staff report. “Subsequently, the program was expanded to include 34 priority study areas. “

Then after a storm July 8, 2013 – the third most expensive natural disaster in Canadian history – City Council approved a further expansion of the basement flooding program to 41 study areas.

City Council approved  Monday “cash flow funding adjustments” for two Toronto Fire projects.

One adjustment is for “cash flow acceleration of $1.100 million from 2015 to 2014” for construction of a fire station at Highway 27 and Rexdale Boulevard.

That adjustment “is required in order for land to be purchased to ensure the new fire station is constructed as scheduled,” Fire Chief Jim Sales wrote in a July 25 report to the city budget committee.

“In 1999, the KPMG Study identified the current Woodbine site as an under serviced area. Subsequently, the Toronto Fire Services Master Fire Plan 2007 reconfirmed the need for a station in this area. The new fire station will include a Fire Prevention office.”