According to a new study from the association Paris sans tabac, Parisians under the age of 15 are now only 5% to smoke. This is more than half the daily smokers among students aged 14 to 16 in five years.
Parisian adolescents now seem to be sheltered from the scourge. In 2018, only 5% of children under 15 smoke, according to a new study by the association Paris without tobacco.
Half the number of daily smokers
This is more than half the daily smokers among Parisian students aged 14 to 16 in five years: from 2013 to 2018, the rate of smokers fell from 4 to 1% among 14-year-olds, from 11 to 4% in 15-year-olds and 18 to 8% in 16-year-olds. If the evolution remains continuous, it should be the same in 2020 for 16-year-olds, in 2024 for 17-year-olds and in 2030 for 18-year-olds.
“At this rate, smokers, tobacco shops and smoky terraces will soon be a distant memory. Current developments make people very optimistic about the end of smoking”, according to Prof. Bertrand Dautzenberg, president of Paris without tobacco, pulmonologist at Pitié-Salpêtrière and tobacco specialist. “France will most certainly achieve a generation of non-smokers before 2034”.
Paris will have tobacco-free generations long before the objectives announced by the PNRT ?? E-cigarette ( #vape) made smoking out of date and amplified the effects of PNRT ???????? Young Parisians have long anticipated the consumption of ???????????? by a few years. pic.twitter.com/PBkDhFtJIj
– Pr. B Dautzenberg (@parissanstabac) May 31, 2018
The fourth grade, a pivotal moment
Another interesting fact is that the fourth grade (14-15 years old) appears to be a key moment in the lives of young Parisians. In 2018, the rate of daily smokers fell from 0.78% among 12-13 year olds to 13% among 16-17 year olds. “The consumption of tobacco among young Parisians of this age is multiplied by more than ten in one year. It is this very short period that prevention policies must now target, by instilling in these adolescents that smoking is not cool. , but out of date, “insists Bertrand Dautzenberg.
This exception to the French smoking landscape is due to a higher concentration of CSP +, the socio-professional category with the most access to information. “We observe a scissors effect, analysis Bertrand Dautzenberg. CSP + were the first to smoke, because at the time, cigarettes were synonymous with refinement and richness. Today, CSP + are the first to stop consuming tobacco”. Paris, like all major capitals, is also often ahead of this kind of societal trend.
Electronic cigarette and neutral package
In addition to sociological factors, the appearance of vaping and the neutral package seem to be elements that could explain the very good Parisian figures. The electronic cigarette brings a competing social image of the cigarette, and the neutral package (without color or logo) reduces attachment to a brand, a marketing argument to which young people are very sensitive.
However, the effects of significant tax increases are only expected in future surveys, even if they were very effective for 14-15 year olds in 2003 during Jacques Chirac’s first Cancer Plan.
More generally and according to data from the 2017 Health Barometer of Public Health France recently published, the prevalence of daily smoking fell from 29.4% in 2016 to 26.9% in 2017, a decrease of 2.5 points. This corresponds to a million fewer smokers over a year.
73,000 deaths each year
In France, smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death despite everything, with around 73,000 deaths each year. It can be the cause of multiple cancers (lung, throat, mouth, lips, pancreas, kidneys, bladder, uterus, esophagus). But also cardiovascular diseases (myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accidents, arteritis of the lower limbs, aneurysms, arterial hypertension) and erectile dysfunction.
Other pathologies are linked or are aggravated by smoking: gastritis, peptic ulcers, type II diabetes, hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, eczema, psoriasis, lupus, ENT infections (nose – throat – ears) and dental, cataracts and AMD (Age-related Macular Degeneration) can lead to blindness. Not to mention periodontitis, a gum disease that causes loosening and loss of teeth.
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