After Belgium, France seeks Commission’s green light to ban disposable e-cigarettes

The French, parliament reached an agreement on Thursday (21 March) to ban so-called ‘puffs’, single-use electronic cigarettes. The prohibition will be expected to come into force, at the end of September, according to Green MP Francesca Pasquini, who initiated the law. 

The text was widely adopted by the National Assembly in December and then ratified by the French Senate in February. The final stage was to convene a joint committee, bringing together members of parliament from both chambers. The committee reached a joint text without difficulty.

The French future bill now needs the green light from the EU Commission. I am “immediately asking the European Commission to confirm France’s decision. The fight against smoking must continue,” said Health Minister Catherine Vautrin on X.

The European Commission has six months to approve the legislation. Pasquini is quite optimistic since the Commission gave their go-ahead, for a ban on “puffs” in Belgium on Tuesday (19 March).

In their decision, the Commission concluded: “that the proposed ban, of 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 in February, Vautrin denounced puffs as an “environmental, social and health scourge.”

She added, “The marketing of these products is designed to attract young people with these colours, fruits, and fragrances. We are seeing devices coming onto the market with contents equivalent to 18 packets of cigarettes.”

Teenage use of electronic cigarettes, including puffs, tripled between 2017 and 2022, according to a report by the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction published in March 2023.

France to ban disposable e-cigarettes by 2025

France will ban the selling of single-use e-cigarettes by 2025, French Health Minister Aurélien Rousseau announced on Tuesday during a National Tobacco Control Program (PNLT) presentation, while increasing tobacco taxation.

Teenage use of electronic cigarettes, including puffs (those colourful single-use electronic …

[Edited by Rajnish Singh]

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