French Vote Paves Way to Disposable Ban

France has moved one step closer to a ban on disposable vapes. The Senate voted unanimously Wednesday to ban pre-filled, disposable e-cigarettes.

“The marketing of these products is intended to attract young people with colors, fruit [flavors] and aromas, and low price,” Labour and Health Minister Catherine Vautrin told the chamber.

While the Senators approved the law, they modified the National Assembly’s text to clarify the ban, according to media reports.

The text would ban the “manufacturing, marketing, sale, distribution or offering for free” of the products and prohibit owning them with the intent to sell or distribute them, with a fine of up to €100,000 ($108,000).

The two chambers will now need to combine their text and approve that version before it is sent to the European Commission, which will have six months to hand down an opinion.

The government has said it hopes the ban will come into effect in September.

Meanwhile, vaping and other recent smoking innovations are expected to be high on the agenda as country representatives gather in Panama City on Monday, tasked with revising the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the first treaty ever adopted under the auspices of WHO, entered into force.