Covid-19: Reminder of sanitary rules to be respected
The government has chosen to allow businesses specializing in the sale of vaping products to reopen, despite the containment measures imposed because of Covid-19.
This decision is in recognitionof the public health mission carried out by French professionals in the vape sector, and in particular the almost 900 structures that are members of Fivape. Industrialists and specialist shops, independent of the tobacco industry, have enabled 700,000 French people to escape the harmful effects of cigarettes for good, and 3 million to move away from them by adopting vape as part of a weaning process. Our professionals offer everyone the hope of escaping the tragic consequences of smoking, as evidenced by the deaths of 73,000 French men and women every year.
Continuing to serve vapoteurs and future ex-smokers means doing our part in the fight against Covid-19. Indeed, while the dangerousness of tobacco no longer needs to be demonstrated, it seems that, in the face of the current pandemic, tobacco is an aggravating factor: recent studies have revealed that smoking increases the chances of developing a severe form of the coronavirus by 50%(1).
In this context, it is unthinkable to ban access to vaping products from specialists in the sector, at the risk of insidiously encouraging vapoteurs to return to cigarettes in the midst of a difficult and courageous process of smoking cessation.
For several years now, many representatives of the medical profession, across all disciplines, have been arguing that vaping is an excellent tool in the fight against smoking. Today, the French government has officially joined them, and we can only be delighted.
However, we call on each and every one of our members to take responsibility. Whether retailers or manufacturers, we are first and foremost professionals specializing in risk reduction. The current context calls on us more than ever to demonstrate this, by adopting extremely rigorous practices and protocols, which must be strictly adhered to: they commit the seriousness of the sector and
constitute the only barrier to effectively protecting consumers and employees.
Here are our recommendations.
Message from Fivape:
This situation could last. Observations from abroad suggest that business will not return to "business as usual" for many months to come. Similarly, confinement situations are likely to recur in the future, for several weeks at a time.
It is therefore very important to take a medium-term view of the recommendations that follow. Adopting the right procedures today will ensure that we meet the demands of tomorrow's world, all the more so when public authorities recognize our public health mission.
These provisions apply to our entire industry. Fivape is an inter-professional federation, and its scope encompasses several trades. Intelligent integration of manufacturing, distribution and sales will enable the entire chain of vape products to move forward safely and efficiently.
At the start of the containment period, the absolute national priority is to limit the spread of the virus. The aim is to relieve hospital overcrowding and give science time to find treatments.
The French government, in ruling on the opening of vaping outlets, has recognized our public interest. Like other authorized businesses, we have to organize ourselves to meet two objectives that are difficult to reconcile: to supply and to protect. In this phase of stupefaction, anguish and questioning of our social organization, our status as an employers' organization in an indispensable sector implies responsibilities. The first is to respect the individual freedoms and sensibilities of our employees.
On this point, our recommendation is twofold:
1 - No pressure should be put on teams. Only those who wish to remain on rotation should do so, on a voluntary basis, understanding the meaning of the public service mission they are about to accept. The exercise of the right of withdrawal must never be hindered. If you don't have anyone to run a sales outlet, or to keep a production line running, make arrangements and close down.
2 - You must be able to ensure the safety of your teams at work. Without the right protective gear, there can be no recovery. Given current shortages, we know that this recommendation will be a limiting factor in the short term.
Fivape is asking all its members who are technically unable to comply with these rules not to open their sales outlets or production lines.
Good luck to you all, we remain mobilized, by your side.
Jean Moiroud and the Board of Directors
Protocols, recommendations and barrier gestures
Supply:
We ask e-liquid manufacturers to restrict their catalogs to offer for sale only the best-selling products in their range (20/80 rule).
We know that maintaining a rich catalog requires significant human and logistical resources. We need you to make life easier for us, so that we can organize it safely.
We ask specialist stores to heed this advice, adapt their orders and explain the process to customers. We propose that this filter be made "economically" by manufacturers, based on distributors' essential needs to enable consumers to quit smoking.
Logistics:
Consideration needs to be given to procurement: let's divide up the workload according to each person's expertise. For example, it would be a good idea for a network not to ask a manufacturer to ensure routing to all the stores in its network, but to centralize a large order to its platform, and then distribute it locally.
The same applies to the use of wholesalers. Logistics is their expertise and should be used to make life easier for companies in the sector.
This provision also aims to share the logistics burden between road haulage and "express" services.
Service at physical points of sale :
1. Sellers :
- With a view to limiting risks, the organization of a door-to-door service is the most suitable "face-to-face" direct sales solution, along with the "drive" system (pick-up at the door of
orders placed online).
- It must be compulsory for sales staff to wear a mask. Failing this, and as long as it is difficult to obtain the necessary quantities, the use of a scarf is recommended.
- The use of hydro-alcoholic gel to rub hands between each customer should be systematic. Alternatively, disposable latex gloves can be used, to be changed between each customer.
- If the structure's organization allows for the presence of 2 sales staff, and if there is a queue, one of them can go outside to take orders and then prepare them in the store. This means that customers only have to pay inside the store, before taking their orders away.
- No physical contact should take place between sales staff or with customers.
- Sales staff should not vapourize in the store, in order to respect basic barrier gestures.
- Wyritol-type disinfectant should be used systematically between customers, on door handles, counters, cash registers, EFTPOS terminals and on any object likely to be handled by the customer.
- No taste tests should be carried out, even with disposable tips.
- Handling of equipment should be kept to a strict minimum.
- Short after-sales services can be handled by the minute, longer after-sales services should be referred by the customer for return by appointment.
2. Customers :
- When the "door-to-door" or "drive-through" option is not available, no more than one customer at a time may be welcomed into the store, and the time spent there should be kept to a minimum.
- The use of hydroalcoholic gel to rub hands upon entering the store must be systematic.
- The queue should be kept outside the store, with a minimum distance of one metre between each person.
- There should be no physical contact between customers or sales staff.
E-liquid manufacturing :
A specific note on e-liquid manufacturing will be sent at a later date.
Jean Moiroud (and the Board of Directors)
