The French Parliament has backed a proposal that will ban single-use e-cigarettes. The National Assembly, which represents between 350 and 400 members who are elected by the public every five years, unanimously voted to support the proposal.
French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne made headlines in September when she told RTL radio that the government would “soon present a new national plan to fight against smoking with, in particular, the prohibition of disposable electronic cigarettes, the famous “puffs” which give bad habits to young people.”
MP Francesca Pasquini submitted the draft outlining the e-cigarette ban in November of last year. The proposal is just a small part of France’s new anti-smoking plan, which also proposes an increase in the price of cigarettes. The incremental increase to €12 in 2025 and €13 in 2027 has already faced backlash, with some campaign groups labeling it as ineffective.
Anti-smoking campaign group Alliance Contre le Tabac is pushing for an increase to €16 per pack of cigarettes. Regarding the proposed increases, President Loïc Josseran argues, “It won’t have an effect on people, and we can even ask whether prevalence will rise again, as it did between 2005 and 2010 when the price per pack stayed the same.”
Like a lot of countries, France is struggling to manage the popularity of e-cigarettes, or “puff bars”, as they are colloquially known. Despite studies showing a decrease in e-cigarette experimentation (50.28% in 2018 to 41.25% in 20201L. Adermark, M.R. Galanti, C. Ryk, H. Gilljam, L. Hedman, “Regional French evolution of tobacco and e-cigarette experimentation and use among adolescents aged 15–16 years: A cross-sectional observational study conducted in the Loire department from 2018 to 2020,” in Preventive Medicine Reports, vol. 30, 2023, [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmedr.2023.102278) among adolescents, concerns about youth uptake are still front and center.
Experimental use may have decreased, but studies show that daily e-cigarette use is still popular among adolescents. According to a 2020 study, 16.8% of French adolescents aged 17 use e-cigarettes occasionally2M.S. Ali, R.H. Groenwold, O.H. Klungel, “Does e-cigarette experimentation increase the transition to daily smoking among young ever-smokers in France?,” in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, vol. 208, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.107853, with 1.9% using e-cigarettes every single day.
Reports about the new anti-smoking campaign focus on adolescents, but the government has wide-reaching concerns about the health of all French citizens who use tobacco products. Aurélien Rousseau, the Minister of Health and Prevention, spoke on BFM television about the issue, stating that tobacco products are responsible for 75,000 avoidable deaths in France each year.
Before the proposal becomes law, it has to face the Senate, the upper house of the French Parliament. The 348 members of the upper house are elected through indirect universal suffrage every six years, meaning they are not directly selected by public vote. If the proposal gains approval from the Senate, it still has to get clearance from the EU Commission.
The proposal comes at a time when European countries are announcing campaigns against cigarettes. Like the UK, which presented plans for a ”smoke-free generation” mere months ago, France has included e-cigarettes in its strategy against tobacco. Given that e-cigarettes only contain nicotine, and therefore far fewer carcinogens than tobacco-filled cigarettes, some could argue that European countries are being disproportionately harsh toward the vape industry.
Only time will tell whether the ban will cause a decrease in adolescent vapers in France, or whether, as seen in the U.S., the government will experience a flood of counterfeit vapes.
