In response to the European Commission's decision to revise the tobacco product tax directive, France Vapotage offers a press release recalling " that in France, as everywhere in the European Union, electronic cigarettes should not be considered as tobacco products"
“THE E-CIGARETTE DOES NOT CONTAIN TOBACCO! "
Paris, Tuesday June 9, 2020,
“Since last week, the European Commission can proceed with the revision of the directive on excise duties applicable to tobacco. And, for the first time, it proposes to extend its scope to vaping products, although these do not contain tobacco. France Vapotage is alarmed by the amalgam maintained by this approach and the impact for the sector, whether at the legislative and regulatory level, or whether with regard to the more than 3 million French vapers who have found in the electronic cigarette a reliable alternative to their smoking practice.
FINISH WITH ABSOLUTE CONFLICT
The electronic cigarette does not contain tobacco!
It issues a aerosol from a heated liquid, while the "classic" cigarette emits smoke from of burning tobacco. As the scientific studies on which Public Health England is based, point out, the vapor of the electronic cigarette contains 95% less harmful substances than the smoke of the tobacco cigarette.
Maintaining the confusion between “vaping and“ smoking ”, vaping and smoking, electronic cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes, is to ignore the fundamental differences between two products and two practices.
This absolute and persistent misinterpretation adds to the confusion of current or potential consumers, while 57% of French people questioned (49% of smokers) consider themselves poorly informed about electronic cigarettes and that they believe that the public authorities do not sufficiently fulfill their role of providing information on electronic cigarettes (77%).
Confusion detrimental to public health efforts
In the current state of scientific knowledge, vaping is undoubtedly less harmful than smoking. Admittedly, additional studies must be carried out, in particular epidemiological with large cohorts, to clarify the effects of vaping on the health of consumers and those around them, in particular in the long term. But vaping remains an alternative practice to the consumption of tobacco, which must be encouraged in a risk reduction strategy.
By the way, the electronic cigarette is the most effective and most widely used smoking cessation or reduction aid tool. The National Academy of Medicine also invites smokers not to hesitate and to switch to vape.
While the electronic cigarette market has grown considerably in France in a few years, with more than 3 million consumers today, France Vapotage recalls that adult smokers who try to quit do not need us to play with fears and multiply controversy. The high smoking prevalence in France requires pragmatic responses where the cause, tobacco, cannot be put in the same basket, but one of the tangible solutions, vaping.
More generally, France Vapotage wishes to more moderation and reason in debates relating to the electronic cigarette. She deplores the proliferation of anxiety-provoking, alarmist, often contradictory, sometimes totally eccentric, communications around this product. The amalgamations and fake news which circulate are as many blows to the efforts made by many smokers to stop their smoking practice as well as of public health actors to reduce smoking in France and abroad. The latest campaign rolled out by the WHO as part of the World No Tobacco Day is as shocking as it is caricatured.
All these communications create and maintain doubt in the minds of smokers. They weaken an alternative to tobacco which has proven its effectiveness.
FOR AN ADAPTED AND DEDICATED REGULATORY FRAMEWORK
Since its creation, France Vapotage has requested that vaping benefit from an appropriate regulatory framework. To challenge and reject this approach is to accept the designation "other tobacco products" for vaping products, to maintain confusion with tobacco, and to increase the economic and fiscal risks for the vaping sector.
This is why we call for electronic cigarettes to be treated as a separate product in all the regulations that concern them, by being clearly decorrelated from tobacco products, allowing it to benefit from appropriate and specific regulations. . In particular, we expect this differentiation to be at the heart of the future revision of the Tobacco Products Directive (Directive 2014/40 / EU) ”
The manufacturers' federation renews its request to the public authorities to work with professionals in the sector in order to better support current and potential consumers around the following requests:
- establish a clear and appropriate regulatory framework for all products and e-liquids sold in France;
- preserve the attractiveness linked to the cost of vaping products and therefore their clear distinction with tobacco products, subject in particular to specific taxes (excise); launch public awareness campaigns on electronic cigarettes among adult smokers as well as public information campaigns on vaping and its practice among consumers;
- initiate new studies on the use and practice of electronic cigarettes and their potential consequences on long-term health.
To find out more, visit the official website of France Vaping.
