More and more children and adolescents poisoned by nicotine and tobacco products, warns ANSES

ANSES also warns of accidental intake of nicotine and tobacco because many calls to poison control centers concern babies who have swallowed tobacco by mistake.

More and more children and adolescents are poisoned by nicotine and tobacco products, reveals ANSES in a study. The National Food Safety Agency recorded all calls received by poison centers between January 2017 and December 2022, making 300 calls in total.

The number of calls may seem small, but ANSES believes that this is probably the tip of the iceberg. If the study shows that young children are affected by these poisonings, it is especially adolescents who are most affected and in their case it is an intentional consumption of snus (a form of tobacco packaged in sachets containing a tobacco powder) or nicotine sachets (median age: 14 years).

Calls from college nurses about cases of student poisoning

Surprising calls have been received by poison control centers in recent years. College infirmaries called to warn of the poisoning of several students with sachets of tobacco or nicotine, explains Cécilia Solal, toxicologist at Anses. “A student had given it to others and this led to symptoms. The first dose of nicotine can be enough to cause symptoms” such as seizures or symptoms. Teenagers sometimes end up in the hospital. In 54.6% of cases, people presented symptoms, 82.6% of which were of low severity.

Adolescents slip these tobacco sachets between the lip and the gum. Snus, a form of tobacco packaged in sachets containing tobacco powder, is banned in France. So those circulating in France are rather filled only with nicotine. “These are products that are not regulated so we do not really know what is in the nicotine sachets. We do not know if the concentration of nicotine indicated on the box is the real one”declares Cécilia Solal.

Beyond the risk of adolescent dependence on nicotine, ANSES warns of the risks of poisoning and asks health authorities to supervise and regulate the use of these nicotine sachets for minors. ANSES also warns of accidental intake of nicotine and tobacco because numerous calls to poison control centers concern babies who have mistakenly swallowed chewing (or chewing) tobacco, heating tobacco or even colored aromatic beads resembling candy. 12 cases of exposure to heated tobacco concern infants aged 9 to 20 months. For the 138 exposures to aromatic beads, three-quarters of those exposed were children, 52.9% of whom were aged 1 to 3 years.

The study was entrusted to the ANSES “Vigilance of Chemical Products” working group in April 2022 and was validated in September 2023. Three expert medical toxicologists were appointed rapporteurs for the analysis of the data. This work therefore comes from a group of experts with complementary skills.