NB Lung says tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease and death in Canada.

“In Canada, it actually kills about 46,000 Canadians every year,” says President and CEO Melanie Langille.

The organization is applauding an increase in federal taxes on tobacco and e-cigarettes.

The federal budget increased tobacco taxes by $4.00 per carton of 200 cigarettes and will increase e-cigarette taxes by 12 per cent effective July 1, 2024.

Langille says this will make them less attractive to youth, “Maybe get them out of the hands of the younger generation and stop another generation of people that are addicted to nicotine.”

She says in the 2021/2022 school year, about a quarter of high school students were vaping.

“This is a lot more than we saw even just seven years ago, when it was maybe nine per cent. So we need to keep these products, continually less and less attractive to these kids.”