Parliament reached an agreement, Thursday March 21, on the ban on puffs, these single-use electronic cigarettes popular with young people, which suggests an effective ban ” end of September “said environmentalist MP Francesca Pasquini to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The transpartisan bill carried by Mme Pasquini was adopted unanimously in the Senate at the beginning of February, after having been adopted in the Assembly in December in 2023. A joint committee bringing together parliamentarians from both chambers reached without difficulty a common text on Thursday.
The government immediately announced its decision to notify the European Commission, which has six months to validate this legislation. “I immediately contact the European Commission so that it can confirm France’s decision. The fight against smoking must continue”reacted the Minister of Health, Catherine Vautrin, on. Mme Pasquini is optimistic about the Commission’s agreement, after it gave its approval at the beginning of the week to the ban on puffs decided by Belgium.
A “health, social and environmental scourge”
In its decision, the European Commission “concludes that the proposed ban on the placing on the market of disposable electronic cigarettes containing nicotine is justified, necessary and proportionate to the objective of protecting public health”. In the Senate, Mme Vautrin had denounced a “health, social and environmental scourge”.
“The marketing of these products is designed to attract young people with these colors, these fruits and these scents, these low prices. We are seeing devices come onto the market with contents equivalent to eighteen packs of cigarettes”she castigated.
According to a recent survey, 15% of adolescents aged 13 to 16 have already used these puffs, almost half of them getting used to nicotine this way. The text plans to prohibit the manufacture, sale or free offer of these products, with a fine of 100,000 euros.