Smoke-free recommendations: tobacco or vaping, a "principle of confusion" that could cost lives

The European Commission¹ has just recommended a ban on vaping in all public places, in the same way as tobacco, including outdoors. A measure that could harm public health.

On behalf of the French vaping sector, which is independent of the tobacco industry and accounts for 85% of the national market, FIVAPE would like to draw the attention of the public authorities to this new recommendation, which could have an impact on vaping, the most popular smoking cessation aid in France.

First and foremost, as a player in the fight against smoking, FIVAPE is very much in favor of reopening the debate on vaping based on scientific knowledge, and for a general interest policy on vaping.

Status of the European recommendation on smoke-free environments

The European Commission has recommended that the Council of the EU update its recommendation on smoke-free environments, which was adopted on November 30, 2009.².

EU Council recommendations are acts that encourage member states to adopt a particular course of action: these statements are not binding, but can have a major influence on member states' public policies.

The question now is whether this recommendation by the European Commission will have a snowball effect and prompt the Council of the EU to review its recommendation to member states on smoke-free environments. For the record, health policy falls within the competence of the Member States, which is why we're only talking about a recommendation here.

Nevertheless, it is quite possible that in fact exchanges have already taken place between the Commission and the Council, and that the two institutions have reached a consensus that the debate should be reopened.

At the same time, the tobacco industry's intensive lobbying to delay and influence all tobacco control measures is well known.

Smoke or steam: essential differences

Vaping contains no tobacco and produces no smoke. This obvious fact immediately contradicts the title of the "smoke-free environments" recommendation.

However, it is legitimate to question the emissions produced by vaping.³. On this point, the scientific consensus is established: the particles contained in these aerosols are ultra-fine liquid droplets, made up of 99.99% propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerine (VG), nicotine and water. They evaporate in 20 to 30 seconds. Studies confirm that indoor vaping has an immensely lower impact on air quality, up to 6000 times less than cigarette smoke. In concrete terms, vaping pollutes indoor spaces less than frying, incense or household products.

So there's no such thing as "passive smoking" outdoors.

It should be noted that all passive smoke is harmful, and that the most dangerous passive smoke comes from self-burning cigarettes, the smoke released by the smoker having been filtered by his or her lungs.

In the case of electronic cigarettes, this direct emission mode does not exist, since a vaping device only functions when it is activated, at the moment of inhalation. The only vapour emitted is that exhaled by the vapoteur, over 90% of which is filtered by the lungs, the aqueous part coming essentially from the oral-pulmonary system. This also explains the symptoms of dehydration, nausea and headaches, which affect some beginner vapers who are not properly or not at all advised to hydrate.

Confusion and contradictions across Europe

The principle of confusion is at the heart of the tobacco industry's strategy to stifle the rise of vaping, a very popular and effective tool to help people quit smoking, which has de facto become its best enemy.

The confusion between the two products wrongly encourages anti-smoking lobbies to demonize vaping as much as cigarettes, in contradiction with a general interest policy on vape aimed at helping smokers quit.

This contradiction is particularly significant when the commission claims to ban vaping to protect against cancer, while the same commission recognized the benefits of vaping for risk reduction in its BECA report.⁴ (Commission on the fight against cancer) voted by MEPs in 2022.

A clearer, more reasonable situation in France

In 2013, the Conseil d'État⁵ issued a very detailed opinion, recommending that public authorities avoid confusion between smoking and vaping, urging that the same bans not be applied to both products in public places.

Following this advice, in 2017, and in support of a constructive dialogue with stakeholders with the Directorate General for Health within the framework of the Vapotage Working Group - abandoned in 2018 - a decree⁶ clearly established the status of vaping in public places, very different from smoking bans.

From FIVAPE's point of view, this historical stance and current, more extensive scientific knowledge should be conducive to maintaining at least the status quo, or even reinforcing the perception of the particularly significant relative risks between vaping and smoking.

Principle of confusion: lives at stake

9 out of 10 French people (93%) still don't know that vaping is less risky than smoking. More than 1 in 2 French people (56%) believe that vaping is no less dangerous than smoking. More than 8 out of 10 French people (82%) believe that nicotine is carcinogenic.⁷.

Science has documented that misperceptions of the harm caused by harm reduction tools and nicotine cost many lives by turning smokers away from these solutions⁸.

The principle of confusion should not contribute to weakening the fight against smoking, to the benefit of the tobacco industry and cigarette sales, which cause 20% of cancers and 75,000 avoidable deaths a year in France.

FIVAPE is attentive to, and will take part in, any constructive and pragmatic exchanges with bodies dealing with Europe's recommendations on smoke-free environments and their influence on regulations in France.

References :

1. Commission proposes to extend tobacco ban - https://commission.europa.eu/news/commission-proposes-extend-coverage-smoke-free-environments-2024-09-17_fr ︎
2. Smoke-free environments - https://health.ec.europa.eu/tobacco/smoke-free-environments_fr ︎
3. Environmental pollution and emission factors of electronic cigarettes, heat-not-burn tobacco products, and conventional cigarettes - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02786826.2017.1300231 ︎
4. Europe's Beating Cancer Plan - https://health.ec.europa.eu/publications/europes-beating-cancer-plan_en?prefLang=fr ︎
5. Conseil d'État - October 17, 2013 - Request for opinion on banning the use of electronic cigarettes in places for collective use - https://bdoc.ofdt.fr/doc_num.php?explnum_id=19747 ︎
6. Decree no. 2017-633 of April 25, 2017 on the conditions for applying the ban on vaping in certain places for collective use - https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000034492950 ︎
7. Vapotage, nicotine: again and again, millions of French fall victim to the epidemic of doubt - Exclusive BVA poll for SOVAPE - https://www.sovape.fr/bva-2023-vapotage-nicotine-epidemie-doute/ ︎
8. Modeling the population health impact of accurate and inaccurate perceptions of harm from nicotine – https://harmreductionjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12954-024-01059-x - NOTE: there are many other studies. ︎