France has become the second European Union country to pass a ban on the sale of disposable vapes, after a final parliamentary vote held Thursday. A similar disposable ban in EU member Belgium took effect Jan. 1.
The new law was passed yesterday by the French Senate, the upper house of Parliament. It was first passed in December 2023 by the lower house of Parliament, the National Assembly. The final, amended bill was voted on after a joint Senate-National Assembly committee met in January to iron out differences between the legislative bodies.
The amended version of the law bans the sale and distribution of “electronic vaping devices…pre-filled with a liquid and which cannot be refilled, whether or not they have a rechargeable battery” (text from Google Translate). The law does not prohibit non-refillable pods or cartridges.
The bill was okayed last September by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, which must approve new laws by member states that could affect the EU’s single-market economy.
The prohibition of disposable (or single-use) vapes—often called “puffs” in France—marks the end of a years-long effort by French tobacco control and environmental activists, who claim the products are designed to lure children into nicotine use, and also harm the environment.
"It is a great victory in a two-pronged battle that we were fighting: an environmental battle against the polluting lithium batteries in these 'puffs', and a health battle for our schoolchildren," the bill's author Francesca Pasquini told Agence France-Presse yesterday.
Several other EU countries have debated proposals to ban disposables, and the issue may be addressed in the next update to the EU Tobacco Products Directive (TPD)—the bloc’s foundational tobacco control law—probably coming later this year. Laws passed by France, which is the EU’s second-largest economy, could be influential in guiding EU policy.
The United Kingdom (which is no longer an EU member) will prohibit single-use vapes beginning June 1.
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