This Thursday, May 29, Health Minister Catherine Vautrin, in an interview with Ouest France, made shock announcements about vaping, mentioning 2 hard-hitting measures: a ban on flavors and a cap on nicotine strength. Let's break down this announcement that sends a shiver down our spine.
During this interview, the Health Minister said she wanted to lower the nicotine strength allowed in vaping products. According to her, this would reduce nicotine addiction and encourage quitting. Catherine Vautrin also wants to reduce the number of flavors in liquids and concentrates.
Her aim is to put these measures in place by 2026, pending scientific and technical opinions. The Minister is even considering introducing plain packaging for vaping products.
With this statement, the Minister has dropped a bomb. The announced measures would indeed spell the end of the French vaping market as we know it, because unfortunately we know exactly what happens when flavor restrictions are applied.
The case of the Netherlands, where permitted flavors are reduced to a very restricted positive list, collapsed and shifted entirely to the black market. No serious market player survived and vaping is no longer an option for smokers.
On the cap on maximum nicotine strength: no detail allows us to refine the scenario, but one thing is certain: we know perfectly well that 20mg/ml is already too limited for heavy smokers, and being able to offer only 10mg or even only 15mg would considerably reduce the effectiveness of vaping for quitting smoking.
Indeed, if nicotine strength is restricted, vapers will have to draw more on their vape to get their nicotine satisfaction. It is therefore counterproductive.
Another consequence: the end of the effectiveness of 20mg nicotine boosters (shots), coupled with the flavor ban, would completely finish off 50ml, 100ml and DIY products...
Breaking down the announcements: it looks bad for vaping but there is room for hope...
It is an announcement effect on the occasion of the anti-tobacco sequence launched ahead of World No Tobacco Day on May 31.
The minister is testing public opinion and wants to give the impression she is mobilizing against puffs, after a negative sequence over the last 10 days in which TV reports clearly showed that the anti-puff law was a failure, as Fivape had predicted. (https://fivape.org/interdiction-des-puffs-nos-deputes-se-soumettent-a-lindustrie-du-tabac/)
On the other hand, a flavor ban is possible within the announced timeframe because the government can act by decree on this subject: it is provided for in the TPD and was done very quickly in other countries: very scary and destructive, because flavors are essential to successfully quitting with vaping. To learn more, see this article from Vaping Post.
A cap on nicotine strength, however, requires more work because the TPD does not provide for it; it is a shaky measure that is hard to implement.
Plain packaging applied to vaping can be done, but it also takes work and would require a significant implementation period.
Taxation is not mentioned, which is good news.
To fight the stigmatization of vaping, you can act:
- Read and share the statements from FIVAPE and AIDUCE
- Talk about it with those close to you
- Be ready to support any citizen initiative in defense of vaping and to relay it on social media
To go further, you can read this TF1 article: https://www.tf1info.fr/sante/video-vapotage-la-cigarette-electronique-dans-le-viseur-du-gouvernement-cette-mesure-qui-fait-tousser-les-tabacologues-2373985.html
