Will "puffs", these disposable electronic cigarettes popular with teenagers, soon be banned in France? In any case, this is the hope of MEPs from several political groups who want to vote for their ban, which the Minister of Health has said he supports.
This trend of small colored tubes that we inhale arrived in France at the end of 2021. Sold between eight and 12 euros at tobacconists, on websites or in supermarkets, they offer a wide range of flavors (strawberry ice-cream, sparkling cola or other "bubble gum"), and offer a number of puffs for a nicotine rate between 0 and 20 mg / ml.
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"What struck me is that puffs attract above all young people who can consume them quietly in their room, without being spotted since it does not leave any smell," testified Thursday the ecologist deputy Francesca Pasquini, member of the Nupes group at a press briefing in the Assembly.
Last November, she launched a bill to ban these electronic cigarettes, now signed by 63 MPs from eight different political groups, excluding LR and RN.
Hope for a ban "by the end of the year"
At the beginning of May, Health Minister François Braun said he was in favour of a ban on puffs, which "lead a young part of our population to smoking". The minister "will work with parliamentarians and associations mobilized on the subject," said Thursday his office.
"With this support, we are hopeful of achieving a ban by the end of the year," Pasquini said, noting that several European countries such as Germany, Belgium and Ireland have already begun such a movement.
The MP now hopes to have her bill placed on the agenda of the Assembly so that it can be debated in session in October or November.
"A trap set for children"
"Everything is in place for the ban to arrive quickly," said the deputy of the presidential majority, Karl Olive (Renaissance), present at the press briefing and support of the text. He put forward a measure "that is intended to be transpartisan" and that calls for "no state of mind". In the Senate, too, the subject is on the agenda.
During the debates on the Social Security financing bill for 2023, senators voted a dissuasive tax on these products, which was not retained by the government.
Senator LR Catherine Procaccia has just been entrusted with a mission on alternatives to tobacco by the Parliamentary Office for the Evaluation of Scientific and Technological Choices (OPECST), which enlightens Parliament on decisions in these areas. Its conclusions will be delivered at the end of September. "To date, there is still no scientific study on the subject but politicians were concerned about the phenomenon before the health authorities," said the parliamentarian.
However, many doctors have sounded the alarm. Last February, the National Academy of Medicine spoke of a "real trap set for children and adolescents in order to lead them towards an addiction to tobacco products".
"We're preparing the next generation of smokers"
The Alliance Against Tobacco association has wanted to position itself as a "whistleblower" since 2022, says its president Loïc Josseran, present at the press briefing. "We are on a real health risk," he insists.
According to the association, 13% of adolescents between the ages of 13 and 16 have already consumed a puff, a younger population than those who start smoking.
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"If we do nothing, we prepare the next generation of smokers," warns Loïc Josseran, fearing a "pediatric epidemic".
Health, the issue is also environmental. Disposable, the puffs are indeed made of plastic and contain a non-recyclable lithium battery. "In the UK, every week 1.3 million puffs end up in the trash," Pasquini said.