France to ban disposable vapes

France plans to ban disposable electronic cigarettes, French prime minister Elisabeth Borne said on radio station RTL on Sunday.

“It’s an important public health issue,” said Borne, adding that the government is drawing up plans for a national programme to fight tobacco use that she said was responsible for 75,000 deaths a year in France.

So-called “puff” devices generate habits among young people that can lead to tobacco addiction, she added.

However, the government does not plan to raise taxes on tobacco next year after an increase this year, the prime minister said.

French president Emmanuel Macron in 2021 set out ambitious plans to tackle tobacco and alcohol, pledging more smoking-free areas and aiming to make all 20-year-olds tobacco-free by 2030.

Commenting on the development, the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) said it believes that French plans would not only fail to curb tobacco use but would most likely lead to an increase in smoking rates.

“Smoking kills 75,000 people in France every year but if they move forward with this policy then the death rate will increase rather than drop,” John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA, said. 

“There is a huge demand for single use vape devices both in the UK and France and this demand will not simply disappear if they are banned – instead vapers will either turn to the black market to get untested and potentially dangerous alternatives or return to smoking.”

He highlighted the experience of Australia which only allows vaping on prescription, noting that it has led to a massive black market which has moved in to meet the demand for vapes, and especially single use devices.

“We have seen in the UK that single use devices have proved to be highly effective in getting smokers to switch to vaping, a vastly reduced risk alternative to combustible cigarettes,” Dunne said. “They are inexpensive, compact and easy to use, which are all important factors to help smokers make the initial transition to vaping.”

He contested the French prime minister’s assertion that the disposable vapes acted as a gateway towards smoking for young people, ‘respectfully’ suggesting that ‘she is misinformed’.

“Just last month the charity Action for Smoking and Health (ASH) published a myth buster report which provided evidence that vaping was neither more harmful nor as addictive as smoking and was NOT a proven gateway into smoking,” Dunne said. 

“The latest Office of National Statistics (ONS) data reveals that the UK has the lowest smoking rates since records began and the ONS said vaping has played ‘a major role’ in the decrease of smoking prevalence,” he added. 

Dunne agreed that the uptake of youth vaping is a problem, but said the answer is not to ban products which clearly help adult smokers quit.

“Instead, we need to enforce and tighten the existing laws so that it is not worth while for any retailers to sell these age-gated adult products to children,” he said, reiterating the UKVIA’s call for a national licensing scheme for vape retailers and fines of £10,000, per instance, for anyone convicted of selling to those under 18 or for selling illicit or illegal products.