9 out of 10 French people still don't know that vaping is much safer than smoking. Preconceived ideas, controversy, denigration and even misinformation are undermining the opportunity that vaping represents to combat smoking more effectively.
FIVAPE is committed to defending a professional sector that is totally independent of the tobacco industry, with integrity, ethics and transparency, that respects and draws on science, and that has a single goal: to expertly help smokers quit their deadly habit by offering them safe, effective products.
Vaping is effective for quitting smoking
Scientific studies show that vaping with nicotine is as effective as varenicline and cytisine (drugs not available in France) and twice as effective as nicotine substitutes for quitting smoking. Health barometers in France and Europe confirm that millions of people claim to have stopped smoking thanks to vapotage.
FIVAPE's commitment: to encourage vaping professionals to target smokers or ex-smokers only.
COCHRANE LIBRARY | The electronic cigarette in smoking cessation
Vaping is much less risky than smoking
The scientific consensus has been established for years: vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking. Vaping is not harmless, but the risk reduction is considerable compared with cigarettes and heated tobacco, mainly due to the absence of carbon monoxide and tars in the smoke.
FIVAPE's commitment: ensuring compliance with regulations and promoting product transparency and quality
INSTITUT PASTEUR - SCIENCEDIRECT | Comparison of the chemical composition of aerosols from heated tobacco products, electronic cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes and their toxic impacts on the human bronchial epithelial BEAS-2B cells
OFFICIAL NOTICES | In France and the United Kingdom
Nicotine helps you stop smoking
Nicotine does not cause cancer or other health problems, which is why nicotine replacement products have been validated and prescribed by health professionals for smoking cessation, and reimbursed by social security since 1992. The nicotine used in vaping products is the same as that produced for medicines.
FIVAPE's commitment: to promote the responsible use of nicotine to stop smoking and aim for total withdrawal
INSTITUT NATIONAL DU CANCER | Electronic cigarettes: an opportunity to reduce tobacco-related cancers?
Flavours are essential to vaping
The success of vaping is based on a voluntary approach in which pleasure and diversity of flavors are essential for everyone to find what suits them best to ward off the urge to smoke. 95% of vapers use at least one flavor other than tobacco.
FIVAPE's commitment: to defend the diversity of flavors to better help smokers and prevent vapoteurs from returning to cigarettes or turning to parallel sources (uncontrolled products).
MERCI LA VAPE | Survey summary (40,000 respondents) [pdf]
Vaping is much cheaper than smoking
Smoking not only seriously damages health, but is also very expensive, given that it is the poorest populations who smoke the most, and that saving money is the No. 1 motivation for quitting. With rechargeable equipment and the right nicotine level, vaping can cost 10 times less than smoking.
FIVAPE's commitment: to fight against any over-taxation of vaping (there is already a 20% VAT), which is unjustified from a health point of view and an anti-social measure that amounts to taxing smoking cessation.
SANTÉ PUBLIQUE FRANCE | Factors associated with the desire to quit smoking and quit attempts among smokers. Results of the Santé publique France 2021 Barometer
Vaping does not lead to smoking
Intuitively plausible, the gateway effect is a myth that feeds the pretext of a danger to young people. Yet several French institutions and researchers have demonstrated that trying vaping first rather than cigarettes drastically reduces the risk of becoming a regular smoker.
FIVAPE's commitment: to combat misinformation about the gateway effect and encourage vape professionals to focus on getting people to quit smoking, and to advise people who have never smoked against vaping.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH AND PUBLIC HEALTH | Systematic Review and Critical Analysis of Longitudinal Studies Assessing Effect of E-Cigarettes on Cigarette Initiation among Adolescent Never-Smokers
INSERM and OFDT | Vaping and young people
Vaping products are regulated and controlled
There are no unknowns when it comes to the composition of vaping products, as solid regulations govern their manufacture and sale. French industry professionals are actively involved in drawing up standards and best practice guidelines to ensure consumer safety.
FIVAPE's commitment: to encourage professionals to comply strictly with regulations, and to contribute to the continuous improvement of practices to guarantee product quality and safety.
Smoking in public places is regulated
Even though it has been scientifically proven that passive smoking does not exist, regulations prohibit smoking in places where minors are present, on public transport and in collective workspaces.
FIVAPE's commitment: to provide information on regulations and the place of vaping in society, to ensure that it is never equated with smoking, and that vapoteurs (ex-smokers) are not exposed to smoke in mixed-use areas.
The environmental impact of vaping can be limited
Electronic components, batteries, soiled bottles or cartridges: vaping creates waste that can be complicated, if not impossible, to recycle, especially disposable batteries.
FIVAPE's commitment: to make refillable and reusable products sacred, and to support regulations to ban single-use products that harm the environment (puffs, sealed cartridges - non-refillable).
HOW IT WORKS | Materials
Vaping is not smoking
99% of vapoteurs are ex-smokers. The main purpose of vaping is to avoid smoking. There is no tobacco or combustion in vaping products. Smoking causes 75,000 premature deaths a year in France, while vaping causes zero.
FIVAPE's commitment: to promote the integrity, expertise and transparency of the French tobacco industry-independent vape sector, made up of professionals, manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and e-traders who are proud to have already helped save millions of years of life.
HARM REDUCTION JOURNAL | Modeling the population health impact of accurate and inaccurate perceptions of harm from nicotine