France’s health minister says nicotine pouches are increasingly popular among young people, hence the necessity of a ban on the product. Photo credit: Jakubdrastich2, CC4.0.
France is preparing to ban nicotine pouches, according to health minister Geneviève Darrieussecq. In an interview with Le Parisien, Darrieussecq described the pouches as "dangerous products" because they “contain high doses of nicotine” and noted that an official ban will be introduced in the coming weeks.
Darrieussecq expressed concerns that nicotine pouches could lead young people to start smoking, despite a lack of evidence for this claim. A recent Eurobarometer report found that only 1% of nicotine users aged 15 to 24 cited pouches as their first nicotine product.
“I am very concerned because poison control centers are receiving more and more calls from teenagers for acute nicotine syndromes, sometimes severe, in connection with the consumption of the pouches,” Darrieussecq said, adding that “it is our duty to prohibit the marketing of these products.”
Along with nicotine pouches, the health minister also intends to ban similar products, including nicotine-infused chewing gum and nicotine pearls.
Meanwhile, in Germany, tobacco-free nicotine pouches are technically prohibited but remain widely available and favored among young people, as reported by experts from the Tobacco Outpatient Clinic at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich.