‘Puff’: Brown advocates banning disposable cigarettes popular among teens

Little by little, the idea took hold, but there is still no schedule. As he said in the fall, Health Minister François Brown confirmed on France Inter this Wednesday morning his desire to ban Puff, those sweet-tasting “disposable” e-cigarettes that entice teenagers. A Tobacco Alliance study found that in 2022, 13% of young people used tobacco in this way.

While on the forum last weekend doctors again urged to quickly remove them from the market, Francois Braun says: “Yes, I am for a ban on Puffs, they are pushing some young people to smoke”, this is a “scourge” that leads to “75,000 deaths per year. But without a timeline.

In November, on the occasion of Tobacco Free Month, the Minister of Health, a former emergency physician, made similar comments. The Senate has just voted for a “tax withholding”, deputy ecologist Francesca Pasquini has introduced a bill to ban them in France due to the “environmental aberration” represented by these plastic containers containing a lithium battery meant to be trashed after a few puffs of nicotine.

“They are a real problem because often young people start smoking. I am in favor of banning its sale to young people, “for which Puffs” have become a parallel drug addiction, “the minister said on RTL. And then add: “I want us to have better control over this.”

Thus, more than five months later, François Brown seems to still be at the same point. The ban, which he’s thinking about, without specifying this Wednesday morning whether it was general or reserved for minors, “could be part of our new tobacco plan” or in a future welfare finance bill for the 2024 budget. legislative calendar “which will allow us to work with parliamentarians on this issue,” he concluded.

The Minister of Health also spoke out against the Minister of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, who proposed taxing patients who do not fulfill their medical prescriptions, thereby depriving other patients of a niche. “In this matter, be careful! Be careful not to lead to neglect. 5 euros, for many of our fellow citizens this is important,” he reasoned, citing the figure of 9 million lost appointments per year, and not 27 million, a figure that would not exist, the minister insisted, than a national extrapolation of figurines collected a few years ago in Alsace.

9 million medical appointments are missed per year

Thus, reflections are still ongoing, the Ministry of Health has to free up medical time, since, the minister reminded, it will take ten years to fill in the gaps, and the training will be long. “In order to get past this ten year period, we have to change the way we work, no longer deal with all these useless bureaucratic tasks.” And give a list of medical certificates that should no longer be requested: “when a child is sick, many nurseries ask for a medical certificate that the child is cured,” or certificates of fitness for outpatient practice. non-competitive sport. “Today you need a medical certificate to play petanque. You must be reasonable, let’s make life easier for the French and doctors,” he insisted. However, medical certificates for sports activities have not been mandatory for two years now, but are still required by many associations and communities.

Finally, according to the minister, “in the coming weeks in four regions”, including Reunion, a pilot will be launched so that nurses can issue death certificates.