Elisabeth Borne announces that tobacco taxation will not increase next year and confirms that disposable puff electronic cigarettes will “soon” be banned (AFP/Archives/Charly TRIBALLEAU)
Elisabeth Borne announced on Sunday that tobacco taxation would not increase next year, and confirmed in an interview with RTL that disposable puff electronic cigarettes would “soon” be banned.
“We have increased tobacco taxation this year and there are no plans to increase it next year,” said the Prime Minister, as the government put the final touches to its 2024 budgets.
“That does not mean that we are not very vigilant about tobacco consumption”, nuanced Ms. Borne, pointing out that “tobacco is 75,000 deaths per year”. A “huge” figure and “an important public health issue”.
In this sense, the government “will soon present a new national plan to fight against smoking, including the ban on disposable electronic cigarettes, the famous puffs that give bad habits to young people,” she said.
With its childish, sweet or fruity flavors (marshmallow, ice candy, chocolate hazelnut, etc.), its brightly colored packaging reminiscent of sweets and its low price ranging from eight to 12 euros for 500 puffs, the puff, which exists in a twenty brands, worried because it targets teenagers, while the electronic cigarette is prohibited for minors.
Several European countries such as Germany, Belgium and Ireland have already initiated such a ban on these small tubes, which arrived in France at the end of 2021, and which offer a certain number of puffs for a nicotine level of between 0 and 20 mg/ ml.
“We can be told that it’s not nicotine. But it’s a reflex, a gesture that young people get used to. Then that’s how they go to smoking and we have to stop it” , pleaded Ms. Borne.
Former Minister of Health François Braun had already opened the door in May to an imminent ban on puffs, which must be part of an anti-tobacco plan planned for the period 2023-2028.
Sanitary, the issue is also environmental. Disposable, the puffs are indeed made of plastic and contain a non-recyclable lithium battery.
© 2023 AFP
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