Public Health France and the National Cancer Institute point to “promotional actions on social networks”, while young people are three times more exposed to vaping than their elders.
Unveiled this Monday by Public Health France and the National Cancer Institute, the Cancer Barometer 2021 reports for the first time on the perceptions and attitudes of the French towards electronic cigarettes. The figures shared by the two organizations show a practice that is on the increase, especially among young people.
“The younger generations are 3.5 times more likely to have tested it. Indeed, more than half of 15-24 year olds and 56.8% of 25-34 year olds have already tried it”, establishes the document.
“A tool that must be temporary”
In total, the electronic cigarette is commonly used by 7.5% of French people, an increase of two points compared to 2020. A worrying practice, while this device was initially developed to help people wishing to quit the tobacco.
“The electronic cigarette was developed to reduce the risk of tobacco, to prevent, when you quit smoking, this impulse shot. But it is a tool that must be temporary, because afterwards it becomes a gestural addiction, but also an addiction to nicotine”, indicates the doctor Alain Ducardonnet, health consultant BFMTV.
“I do this all the time, from waking up until nightfall. It’s true that it’s boring, because in my bed I vape all the time. Even indoors I forget, even in the metro sometimes, since ‘She never leaves my hand’, explains to BFMTV a young woman who uses an electronic cigarette.
Marketing campaign to attract young people
In recent years, tobacco manufacturers have redoubled their marketing efforts in order to attract a younger audience, by offering products with a sleek design and varied and original tastes. The 2021 cancer barometer points in particular to “promotional actions on social networks, orchestrated by the tobacco industry, escaping the legislation specific to each country”.
The Puff brand thus offers refills with a “marshmallow”, “ice candy” or even “choco-hazelnut” taste. Last November, tobacconists indicated their wish to be the only ones to sell these products, ensuring that online commerce sites and shops specializing in electronic cigarettes were flouting the ban on sales to minors.
Paradoxically, this massification of vaping does not mean a lack of knowledge of its dangers by the French. As the 2021 Cancer Barometer points out, “more than one in two French people (52.9%)” consider electronic cigarettes “as or more harmful than traditional cigarettes”.
The French also consider – wrongly – that it is the nicotine present in these devices that can cause cancer.
A practice that can lead to smoking?
Although convincing scientific data is still lacking to establish the real danger of vaping, the practice is not without risks.
“What some independent cancer studies show is that it has a respiratory effect, and a vascular effect. You have to be objective, it’s a product that is not trivial. It’s a product that exposes people to less risk than traditional cigarettes. But if it can help some people quit smoking, it can also lead others to return to it”, explains Loïc Josseran, tobacco specialist.
In addition, on the youngest audiences, early exposure to nicotine can influence brain development, recalls Alain Ducardonnet.
“Many actions have already been taken to initiate the total denormalization of tobacco and, in this context, the place of the electronic cigarette must be questioned”, concludes the Cancer Barometer 2021.
