Environmental and public health associations call for a ban on puffs in France

In a column published in Le Monde on 1^er May 2023, a collective of 22 associations calls for a ban on puffs - disposable electronic cigarettes - in France, following the example of the ban requests already filed in Germany, Belgium and Ireland.

Appearing in the fall of 2021 on the French market, disposable electronic cigarettes – commonly called puffs – have been a huge success, especially among young people and teenagers. Sold not only in tobacconists and vaping shops, these puffs are also sold in supermarkets, discount stores and newsstands. Cheaper than a pack of cigarettes, they contain from 600 to more than 2000 puffs and up to 20 mg/ml of nicotine.[1], and can lead to rapid addiction. Available in hundreds of flavors, most of them sweet, and marketed in colorful packaging, puffs seem more intended to appeal to young people than to help adults quit smoking.

The sale of these disposable electronic cigarettes is in principle reserved for those over 18, but in the complete absence of controls, both in tobacco shops and in all other places of sale, it is very easy for minors to obtain them. The millions of copies sold most often end up thrown away on the ground or in the trash, due to the lack of an appropriate collection and treatment circuit.

A gateway to nicotine addiction

This is to stop their spread and a real environmental disaster that a collective is today calling for a ban on these products. 22 environmental and public health associations called, in a column published on 1^er May 2023 in Le Monde, to support the bill to ban puffs tabled by around thirty deputies and to put it on the legislative agenda[2]Alongside the members of the Alliance against Tobacco (ACT), there are associations such as the Surfrider Foundation, France Nature Environnement, Zero Waste France, No plastic in my sea and Swim for change.

This collective highlights both the role of puffs in the installation of nicotine addiction and the environmental consequences of the waste caused by disposable e-cigarettes. From a health point of view, health experts believe that puffs are all the more a gateway to nicotine addiction as they contain nicotine salts, which quickly deliver high amounts of nicotine. Published in September 2022, an ACT study indicated that 28 % of the 13-16 year-olds surveyed had been introduced to nicotine by using a puff. After alerting the public authorities as soon as these products appeared in France, the National Committee against Smoking (CNCT) – which monitors the spread of new tobacco and nicotine products – and the ACT had already called to the same ban at the end of October 2022.

The environmental disaster of puffs

The waste caused by puffs is the other motivation for banning them. Each puff has a battery that contains on average 0.15 g of lithium, but also chemicals (nicotine salts, traces of heavy metals), plastic and electronic components that make it complex and non-recycled waste. This waste pollutes soils, water tables and oceans, and threatens biodiversity, as do the 4,500 billion cigarette butts thrown on the ground each year.

Several countries, including UNITED STATES and the United Kingdom, have begun to express alarm at the phenomenal quantities of this waste, linked to the commercial success of puffs. In Europe, puffs contravene regulations on the reuse of batteries and on single-use plastics. Requests to ban puffs have been filed in Ireland, in Belgium, in Scotland as well as in Germany, it seems logical that France would take strong measures for this type of product.

To learn more about puffs, read our decryption.

Keywords: disposable electronic cigarettes, puff, waste, environment, ACT, France.

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[1] Some models of puffs, banned in France but sold online, contain up to 50 mg/ml of nicotine.

[2] “The disposable electronic cigarette “puff”, an environmental and health scourge that must be banned urgently”, Le Monde, published on 1^er May 2023, accessed May 2, 2023