With the mini e-cigarette puff, manufacturers create in children aged 11-12 “the next generation of smokers is a particularly worrying phenomenon”, alert Friday, October 21 on franceinfo doctor Loïc Josserand, president of the Alliance against tobacco. The puff is becoming increasingly popular among college students. Attracted by “flashy” colors and various flavors, they consume it “like a packet of chewing gum”says Loïc Josserand.
franceinfo: Why do you want to issue an alert?
Loic Josserand: We are faced with a phenomenon that is particularly worrying. “We saw it on TikTok. It’s fun, it’s recreational. I’ve never smoked, I’m going to puff”. It is dreadful! We really have in front of us today, new industrialists who want only one thing, it is to manage to put puff in the hands of the youngest. There are industrialists who say it: “I want to accustom young people to gestures and nicotine”. Everything is done to please them. These are products that, aesthetically, are extremely attractive. We are really on a market which, under the pretext of recreational, has a completely misleading side. We are now creating the next generation of smokers with a product that will make them addicts extremely quickly. We are on nicotine levels at 1.9% maximum. These are children who start consuming this product at 11-12 years old. We buy it like a pack of chewing gum.
The sale is however prohibited to minors…
The sale is completely prohibited to minors. It’s written in tiny letters on the packaging. Unfortunately, very few people check. Everyone benefits from this story.
The only ones who are going to pay the price are the young people who are going to get into this and who are going to fall into addiction and who, tomorrow, are going to start smoking something else.
Loic Josserandat franceinfo
In terms of health, we will have a real problem. There is really a total hypocrisy of a majority of tobacconists, a majority of vape shops and almost all the large retailers who sell their products.
Is the phenomenon growing?
It’s exploding. Just walk down the street. We see more and more kids using it, more and more very young people using it. We are really on a pediatric epidemic as we had on tobacco. We create the smokers of tomorrow. We can talk about a generation without tobacco in 2030, but if we already have a generation of tobacco addicted to these new products from the age of 12-13, we must not imagine that we will quit tobacco in 2030. The manufacturers have already won. It’s over.
What message do you want to send to parents?
Parents need to be very aware of these products because they can easily be confused with a neon pen in a pencil case. By the smell, they can easily be confused with chewing gum. But they are neither chewing gum nor pens. Parents must be informed of the existence of these products, they must not be afraid to talk to their children about them, explaining to them the risks behind them, otherwise we are completely missing out and with absolute naturalness.