Stop disposable electronic cigarettes: the French Parliament approved on Thursday the ban on "puffs", these devices which are particularly popular among young people who are fond of their low price and their varied flavors.
Mint, strawberry ice cream, watermelon or chocolate flavor; attractive packaging; affordable cost but proven risk of addiction… “Single-use vaping devices,” more commonly called “puffs,” will soon disappear from high schools, colleges and streets.
After a unanimous National Assembly last week, the Senate approved the ban by a show of hands, the culmination of a journey of more than two years in Parliament with a passage through the European Commission, for this text initiated by the former Green MP Francesca Pasquini (Génération.s).
Rapporteur Khalifé Khalifé (LR) denounced a “market which shamelessly targets young children with uninhibited marketing”, while Green senator Anne Souyris criticised puffs “designed to attract young people with their sweet flavour and attractive design”.
"This is a further step towards this generation free of tobacco (...) And this is a minister with precarious heart health who is telling you this," welcomed the Minister for Relations with Parliament Patrick Mignola from the podium, also seeing in these disposable electronic cigarettes "a real environmental scourge."
"This vote demonstrates a collective awareness," praised the Minister of Labor and Health, Catherine Vautrin. "We are taking a decisive step to protect our young people," reacted the Minister of Health Yannick Neuder during the adoption by the Assembly.
France is set to become the second European country, after Belgium, to ban their sale on its territory, a move also followed by the United Kingdom, which has announced a ban on their sale by June.
"It's a great victory in a double fight that we are leading: the ecological fight against the polluting lithium batteries of these 'puffs', and the health fight for our middle school students targeted by this consumption which is becoming more and more dangerous," Francesca Pasquini told AFP.
Welcoming a "major step forward", the League against Cancer called in a press release to "go further by banning new nicotine products and derivatives", a request also made by Loïc Josseran, president of the Alliance against Tobacco: "we must not relax our efforts", he insisted.
– “Workarounds” –
In detail, the text prohibits the sale and distribution in France of devices "pre-filled with a liquid and which cannot be refilled, whether or not they have a rechargeable battery".
A carefully considered draft to follow the recommendations of the European Commission, notified in the spring by the government of this initiative.
The Commission has given its approval to the majority of France's proposals, while excluding the case of devices which would be rechargeable with liquid, but whose battery would not be rechargeable.
Parliamentarians initially included this field, wishing to anticipate market developments and thwart the "inventiveness" of industrialists.
While welcoming an "important decision in terms of public health and the environment", the National Committee against Smoking is concerned about "circumventions already anticipated by manufacturers who continue to put on the market electronic cigarettes targeting young people through the multiplicity of their flavors and which remain disposable after a very limited number of refills", in a press release sent to AFP.
This decision by the European Union "was scrutinized by many countries," notes Francesca Pasquini, who assures that the French example could inspire many neighbors.
Fifteen percent of adolescents aged 13 to 16 have already consumed these “puffs” and, among them, 47% say they began their initiation to nicotine through this means, according to a BVA survey for Alliance against tobacco in 2023.
The parliamentarians involved in this law also called on the government to keep its commitments on the upcoming ban on another product, "pouches", these nicotine sachets for oral use.
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