“Tobacco is taboo, we are going to overcome it together,” is what the National Committee Against Tobacco (CNCT) hopes, which is publishing a study on Monday regarding the anarchic development of new products linked to nicotine. The study, conducted between 2020 and 2022, demonstrates a rapid evolution in the marketing of sweet flavors for e-cigarettes, especially among young people.
A trivialization of the products.
In the study, the CNCT shows that the distribution of these new products on the Internet is trivialized, particularly with the advertising made by influencers who praise their ease of use, their design and their aromas on social networks.
Added to this is the economic argument put forward by manufacturers, who regularly offer price reductions. “These products, emphasizing their playful dimension and minimizing their addictive and toxic nature, play a central role in the normalization of nicotine,” denounces the CNCT in its study.
“Far from helping smokers to quit, the multiplication of flavors in new products only aims to phish young consumers,” criticizes Professor Yves Martinet, president of the CNCT.
Ignoring current regulations
In France, the prohibition of “advertising in favor of tobacco at the point of sale” is “generally respected”, considers the committee. But this is not the case with new tobacco and nicotine products.
According to the association “the heated tobacco of the tobacco company Philip Morris, Iqos, is massively promoted.” The CNCT affirms that “almost one tobacconist visited (47%) was “in violation” and that “84.5% of the tobacconists that advertise” electronic cigarettes “are illegal”, as are 72% of the vaping establishments inspected.
Since January 2016, tobacco advertising has been prohibited in tobacconists -which have a monopoly on its sale-, while that of vaping products, which is highly regulated, is limited to placing a sign in the store, not visible from the outside.
“These levels of infringement reflect a systematic and deliberate strategy to evade current regulations encouraged by the absence of controls,” says the CNCT
Call for a marketing ban
In particular, the CNCT asks the public authorities for “the immediate prohibition of aromas other than tobacco for all products that contain nicotine” and better supervision of the sale of new products such as nicotine sachets, “which are not even declared to the ANSES food safety agency, editor’s note) or in accordance with the legislation”.
Finally, the committee calls for a comprehensive review of the regulation of new nicotine products, as well as of nicotine itself.
Source: BFM TV
