Associations are alerting the authorities to new tobacco products popular with young people such as puff, a disposable electronic cigarette, snus, sachets of chewing tobacco or even nicotine pearls.
- New tobacco products are entering the market and are popular with adolescents.
- This worries anti-smoking associations.
- They call for more regulation on these new nicotine products.
Young people are too exposed to smoking and nicotine. This is the observation of two anti-tobacco associations. They deplore the massive use of certain new tobacco products by adolescents, which expose them to the dangers of smoking, and call for more regulation.
A call to ban disposable electronic cigarettes
In a few weeks, MPs are due to debate the ban on disposable electronic cigarettes, called Puff. In a communicated published on November 15, the Alliance Against Tobacco calls on them to vote for this ban. With the BVA institute, she carried out a survey among 13-16 year olds to observe the uses of this product. “Just like last year, the popularity of the Puff has every reason to worry: despite the many voices raised against this product, 15% of teenagers have already used it and among them, 47% have started their initiation of nicotine through this system (compared to 28% in 2023, i.e. +19 pts)”notes the ACT.
Disposable electronic cigarette: a “cool” image among young people
Puff has become as popular as other tobacco products: it is in the top three of the tobacco and nicotine products most used by adolescents. It also benefits from a positive image: 82% of young people believe that it is “more cool” to use Puffs than to smoke cigarettes”classics”. For Loïc Josseran, President of the ACT-Alliance Against Tobacco, it is urgent to ban it. “This battle must not make us forget the more global fight that awaits us: curbing the offensives of manufacturers who are multiplying initiatives (sachets, nicotine pearls, etc.) to bring our young people into the addiction markethe warns. It is urgent to put in place common regulations for all these products which aim for only one thing: to make our children addicted from a very young age to ensure the prosperity of their business.”
Smoking: new products to attract young people
According to the association, many young people have heard of other tobacco and nicotine products such as snus, nicotine sachets that can be sucked or chewed or nicotine pearls. THE National Committee Against Smoking calls for more regulation on these products. “These products were not designed to facilitate smoking cessation for smokers but as new gateways to nicotine., warns Professor Yves Martinet, president of the CNCT. He is pointing out that “Nicotine is a hard drug and once you’re addicted to it, it’s hard to give up.”.
New tobacco products: more regulation needed
However, these new tobacco products are not subject to regulations, particularly regarding advertising. “Advertising for tobacco, including heated tobacco, is completely prohibited, remind him CNCT. Certain oral products, such as nicotine sachets and pearls, are exempt from this regulation.” For the association, it is essential to further regulate these products by relying on the systems currently used for tobacco products: specific taxation, ban on flavors, ban on advertising, removal of product stalls, etc. “For new products currently present in a still limited manner such as nicotine sachets and beads and for future products containing nicotine, whether smoked or for oral use, the CNCT recommends banning them altogether. like Belgium”, concludes the CNCT. According to Tobacco Free Generationthe use of electronic cigarettes among young people tripled between 2017 and 2022.
Faced with the uncontrolled development of new nicotine products, the CNCT requests:
1) alignment of vaping products with tobacco regulations
2) the ban on other nicotine products (balls, sachets), as in Belgiumhttps://t.co/8I1TuWnstZ— National Committee Against Smoking – CNCT (@Le_Cnct) November 15, 2023
