France to ban disposable e-cigarettes by 2025

9 months ago 32

France will ban the selling of single-use e-cigarettes by 2025, French Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau announced on Tuesday during a National Tobacco Control Program (PNLT) presentation, while increasing tobacco taxation.

Teenage use of electronic cigarettes, including puffs (those colourful single-use electronic cigarettes with various flavours), tripled between 2017 and 2022, according to a report by the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction published in March 2023.

“We will ban single-use puffs […] which are an aberration both from a public health point of view and in terms of their environmental footprint,” said Aurélien Rousseau at the press conference.

A cross-party bill put forward by ecologist MP Francesca Pasquini “aiming at banning single-use vaping devices” is currently being examined by the French National Assembly. For Pasquini, this is a matter of emergency “when we know that young people discover nicotine with puffs”.

In France, 15% of teenagers have already used a puff, and 47% of them began their nicotine initiation through this device, according to an ACT-Alliance contre le tabac survey published on November 14.

If the law is adopted by the National Assembly and then by the Senate, France will have to present its bill to the European Commission, which will have six non-compressible months to give its green light – or not.

Germany, Belgium, and Ireland are working on similar legislation to ban single-use e-cigarettes.

Raising tobacco taxes

In addition to banning puffs, the PNLT plans to raise the price of a pack of cigarettes to €13 by 2027 (from the current €11 on average) and to extend smoke-free areas to beaches, parks, forests and the outskirts of public places.

The health minister also wants to “act at the European Union and Member State level to better harmonise tax policy and reduce price differentials”.

“While we are pleased that the government has listened to our concerns […] notably by adopting a ban on puffs, the introduction of plain packs for other vaping products and the widespread introduction of smoke-free areas, we regret the lack of political courage shown by the absence of a genuine tax trajectory”, said Loïc Josseran, president of ACT-Alliance contre le tabac in a press release published Tuesday.

Higher taxation as a means to kill smoking has been steadily supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European Commission.

Higher taxation has been effective in most EU countries as smoking rates have decreased, according to the latest Eurobarometer.

The same applies to France, which, more than two years ago, was the first EU country to impose higher (€6.61) than the EU average (€3.34) excise taxes on tobacco.

According to data, smoking prevalence in France decreased from 29.4% in 2016 to 24% in 2019.

However, studies conducted by the tobacco industry suggest that France’s lack of coordination with neighbouring countries when it comes to tobacco taxation resulted in increased illicit tobacco trade and cross-border shopping.

In France, smoking is responsible for the death of 75,000 people a year, or 200 deaths a day, making it the leading cause of avoidable death.

(Clara Bauer-Babef | Euractiv.fr – Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos | Euractiv.com)