My brothers, sister and I had just come home from swimming practice. My brother was getting a cold so my grandfather forced us to eat heated canned tomatoes and raw onions on multi-grain bread; it was every child’s nightmare.

The reward was that we could go downstairs to play for an hour before nap time.

My grandmother placed a vanilla cookie with lemon filling at our places while my grandfather had his back turned. It was our favourite treat.

She was at my spot when it struck her—the smoker’s cough attacked her body.

The moist cough rumbled through the house. My frail grandmother swayed as she hacked uncontrollably, gripping onto the table. Each cough grew stronger than the other.

After what seemed like an eternity, my grandmother cleared her throat, straightening herself. She looked at me emotionless and with a heavy breath turned around and walked out the door to go to the grocery store.

My grandfather came over the table and took away our lemon cookies.

I looked at my brothers and sister who looked as perturbed as I felt and after being excused from the table we devised a plan. An hour later, instead of playtime we were sent to our rooms. We were being punished because I had ordered the troops to break all of my grandmother’s cigarettes.

Still, I have no regrets.

I’m a bagel-loving, franglais speaking Montrealer who works at CBC Montreal as a researcher for the daily radio shows.

On a rainy day you’re most likely to find me consuming my drug of choice (coffee) and filtering through a database for a story idea. Despite having an academic background in politics and journalism, I’ve always had a passion for both the health and environmental sciences.

My interest in health reporting was epitomized last year when my sister was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and was forced to learn how to take care of herself again.

Whether it’s looking for the most recent studies about pancreatic therapy for diabetes, or pressing a doctor in a pre-interview to explain why he believes the Zika virus to not be sexually transmitted—I’ve always been sceptical of he-said-she-said science.

When I started this project I was unknowingly an anti-vaper. But after reviewing the studies and speaking to many in the vaping community I realized I was wrong and a bit dogmatic in my approach.

It’s not that I believe e-cigarettes to be intrinsically better than smoking—but with an increasing social and political acceptance as well as my own approval of incorporating harm reduction programs in areas that would need them—the idea of prohibiting e-cigarettes seemed like a paradox. 

This was especially true when I compared e-cigarette regulation to the recent discussions by the current federal government on the legalization of marijuana. It seems that banning e-cigarettes and it’s materials is contradictory to the government’s plan to legalize and regulate marijuana.

Seeing someone you love beaten down by an illness is saddening. This happens much too often to families and friends of smokers. What’s worse for them is that smoking, while addictive, is preventable.

Smoking is the number one cause of preventable deaths in Canada and this is a device that at least aims to reduce the harm caused by tobacco smoke.