Month Without Tobacco comes to an end: the fight against smoking stagnates in France
The government's strategy of concentrating its actions on tobacco-free products will not work to achieve the targets set.
BAT France urges the French authorities to engage in dialogue with the industry to achieve the goal of a tobacco-free generation by 2032.
As Month Without Tobacco comes to an end, the proportion of smokers in France stagnates at over 31%[1] . In addition, Health Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq's plan to ban nicotine pouches, a tobacco-free product that could help reduce smoking, risks compromising the government's ambitions to achieve “the first Tobacco-Free Generation” by 2032[2]. Indeed, if the Barnier government persists in this course, it will mark a significant step backwards for French adult smokers. Such a ban would run counter to a key measure of the French National Tobacco Control Program (PNLT) 2023-2027, which plans to “develop a coherent roadmap on the regulations applicable to all nicotine products, such as nicotine pouches.”
Sweden: an approach that works
While France continues to lag behind other European countries in the fight against smoking, Sweden stands out. With smoking rates down to 5.3% of the population, Sweden is well on the way to becoming a smoke-free country[3].
The risks of illicit trade
In France, favoring the prohibition of nicotine pouches over rigorous supervision could encourage the sale of uncontrolled products via illicit networks, thereby exposing French smokers to greater risks. Minister Darrieussecq claims to want to protect young people, but a ban will have no practical impact on them.
A call for collaboration for a smoke-free France!
BAT France reaffirms its support for the goal of a Tobacco-Free Generation in France by 2032, but believes that banning nicotine pouches would make the situation worse.
Find out more about the importance of fair and effective regulation in achieving a tobacco-free France, visit our new website at www.francesanstabac.fr.
Romain BAYLE
+33 620 497 554
romain_bayle@bat.com
BAT is a leading, multi-category consumer goods business with a purpose to build "A Better Tomorrow" by reducing the health impact of its business through offering less risky products for adult consumers.
The company continues to be clear that combustible cigarettes pose serious health risks, and the only way to avoid these risks is not to start or to quit. BAT encourages those who would otherwise continue to smoke to switch completely to scientifically-substantiated, reduced-risk alternatives*†. In order to deliver this, BAT is transforming into a truly consumer-centric multicategory consumer products business.
BAT’s ambition is to have 50 million consumers of its non-combustible products by 2030 and to generate £5billion of New Categories revenue by 2025. BAT has set stretching ESG targets including achieving carbon neutrality for Scopes 1 & 2 by 2030 and eliminating unnecessary single-use plastic and making all plastic packaging reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.
BAT employs over 53,000 people and operates in over 180 countries. The BAT Group generated revenue of £25.8 billion in 2020 and profit from operations of £9.9 billion.
The company’s Strategic Portfolio is made up of its global cigarette brands and a growing range of reduced-risk*† New Category tobacco and nicotine products and traditional non combustible tobacco products. These include vapour, tobacco heating products, modern oral products including tobacco-free nicotine pouches, as well as traditional oral products such as snus and moist snuff. In 2020, we had 13.5 million consumers of our non-combustible products, a rise of 3 million on the year before.
* Based on the weight of evidence and assuming a complete switch from cigarette smoking. These products are not risk free and are addictive.
† Our products as sold in the US, including Vuse, Velo, Grizzly, Kodiak, and Camel Snus, are subject to Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation and no reduced-risk claims will be made as to these products without FDA clearance.