After the puffs, the bags. The Minister of Health, Geneviève Darrieussecq, announced this Tuesday, October 29, the upcoming ban on nicotine sachets, also called “bags”.
“In the coming weeks a ban text will be published,” he told Le Parisien. For several months now, certain authorities have been warning about these products that young people like.
Small nicotine pouches
The bags are tobacco-free nicotine pouches. They contain, in a permeable fabric, polymeric fibers impregnated with nicotine and aromas. These sachets, which slide between the lip and gum, diffuse the nicotine for several tens of minutes.
Bag sellers present them as a healthier alternative to cigarettes since they do not contain tobacco and do not cause combustion, which causes the formation of substances toxic to the body. “By banning nicotine bags, the Government indirectly favors traditional tobacco producers,” the information platform Nicotine World, founded by bag sellers, denounced in a statement this Wednesday.
Health risks
But in November 2023, ANSES warned about the health risks of the bags, which can cause “acute poisoning” with nicotine. According to the Health Insurance website, a nicotine overdose is manifested by headaches, nausea, vomiting, blurred vision, abdominal pain, diarrhea, cold sweats, tremors, and sometimes general weakness. “In high doses,” seizures may occur, adds the Health Insurance.
In recent years, French poison control centers have reported to ANSES some cases of poisoning related to the consumption of nicotine sachets, the number of which is probably underestimated. “These are dangerous products because they contain high doses of nicotine,” said Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq.
An introduction to smoking?
The Minister of Health also warned about the possibility of “inducing nicotine dependence and then starting to smoke” by consuming bags. A concern similar to that which has worried electronic cigarettes for several years.
The Higher Council of Public Health thus estimated in 2021 that scientific literature tends to demonstrate that electronic cigarettes can introduce adolescents to tobacco consumption. This body in charge of advising public authorities on health matters recommends delaying the initiation and use of electronic cigarettes among adolescents who do not use tobacco as a “precautionary principle.”
Geneviève Darrieussecq also stressed that the marketing of the bags “is directly aimed at young people.” “I wish we could protect our youth,” he told Le Parisien.
An observation already made by the National Committee Against Tobacco (CNCT) in May. This association found 239 advertisements for nicotine pouches on Instagram in 2023, while “no rigorous age verification is carried out on the sites” that sell them.
“These advertisements point in particular to the diversity of flavors available and the possibility of consuming these products in places where smoking is prohibited,” the CNCT described in a May press release. The president of the organization, Professor Yves Martinet, stated that “the importance of the doses of nicotine characterizes the addictive nature of the product and, consequently, a very rapid appearance of dependence, especially among young people.”
Other products in the government’s sights
Faced with the risk of a ban, manufacturers advocate for “common sense measures”: “banning sales to minors, supervising distribution and controlling nicotine content” could “protect the most vulnerable populations and the at the same time helping smokers to quit. ”says Nicotine World.
Until then, nicotine pouches were not subject to “any specific regulations in France or Europe,” according to ANSES. This should change soon, according to announcements from the government, which also plans to ban similar products, such as aromatic pearls.
Geneviève Darrieussecq also indicated that the transpartisan bill adopted in Parliament at the beginning of the year to ban puffs, these single-use electronic cigarettes also popular with young people, should be enacted “in the coming weeks.” “My goal is to stop marketing it before the end of the year,” he said.
Source: BFM TV
