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Tag: France

  • Critics: €12 Cigarettes “Too Lenient”

    Critics: €12 Cigarettes “Too Lenient”

    Photo: OceanProd

    A French plan to raise the price of cigarettes to €12 ($12.94) per pack is “too lenient,” according to critics, reports Euractiv.

    Speaking on the RMC station on Aug. 28, spokesman Olivier Véran said the government could raise the price of cigarettes to €12 per pack from the start of 2024.

    But according to the French Alliance Against Tobacco (ACT), a lobby group that brings together anti-tobacco organizations, this measure is not up to the public health challenge.

    “Only a strong and sustained policy will enable us to achieve an effective and lasting reduction in the prevalence of smoking in our country,” said ACT president Loïc Josseran, whose organization wants a pack of 20 cigarettes to cost €16 by 2027.

    The ACT would also like to see an increase in the price of other tobacco products, such as roll-your-own tobacco, to discourage smokers of so-called conventional cigarettes from switching to these products.

    According to the World Health Organization, on average, a 10 percent price increase reduces consumption by 5-8 percent in low- and middle-income countries and by about 4 percent in high-income countries.

    After falling significantly between 2016 and 2019, daily smoking has stabilized since 2019. There are nearly 12 million smokers in France, according to data published by Santé publique France in 2022.

  • France Bans Smoking in Forests

    France Bans Smoking in Forests

    Photo: Thicha

    French lawmakers have voted to ban smoking in forests during the fire season, reports AP.

    The National Assembly voted 197-0 in a first reading on May 17 of a proposed law to better prevent and tackle forest fires. The draft has already passed through the Senate.

    The smoking ban builds on an existing forest law that already bans the lighting of fires within 200 meters of wooded areas. It aims to reduce the risk of fires started by discarded cigarettes—a frequent cause of blazes, especially when woodlands are tinder-dry.

    Forest fires have long regularly afflicted France, one of the most wooded countries in Europe. But they generally used to start later in the year. Major wildfires in Europe are now starting earlier, becoming more frequent and harder to stop, and doing more damage. Scientists say they’ll likely get worse as climate change intensifies. The Mediterranean region is warming faster than the global average.

    The government says human activity is by far the most frequent trigger of forest fires in France, responsible for 90 percent of blazes.

  • France Considers Ban on Disposables

    France Considers Ban on Disposables

    Image: kotoyamagami | Adobe Stock

    The French government may ban disposable electronic cigarettes by the end of this year, Health Minister Francois Braun said on May 3, according to Barron’s.

    “I’m in favor of a ban,” Braun told broadcaster France Inter, adding that the devices “lead some of our young people toward using tobacco.”

    “Smoking is a scourge; it kills 75,000 people per year” in France, he said.

    Although President Emmanuel Macron’s government has no majority in Parliament, ministers would “work with lawmakers” to reach a deal on a ban, Braun said.

    It could be enacted “before the end of this year,” he added.

    The ban may form part of a new anti-smoking plan the health ministry is working on for the coming five years.

    Sweet-flavored and fruit-flavored one-use electronic cigarettes—known as “puffs” in France—are sold in brightly colored packaging costing an estimated €8 ($8.83) to €12 for 500 puffs.

  • Counterfeit Tobacco Seized in France

    Counterfeit Tobacco Seized in France

    Photo: Europol

    French authorities seized more than 100 tons of illegal tobacco-related products worth €17 million ($18.43 million) during a raid on Jan. 12.

    According to Europol, the confiscated materials included 19.4 million cigarettes and 15 tons of cut tobacco along with 50 tons of packaging materials, such as paper, filters and labels, as well as 18 tons of waste from the cigarette production process.

    Officers also seized vehicles, factory machinery and electronic equipment. The seized tobacco and counterfeit products were destroyed. 

    During the raid, which involved more than 60 officers from the French National Gendarmerie, police arrested nine suspects, most of them Moldovan nationals. The gendarmes discovered a quasi-industrial setup for the production of counterfeit cigarettes in large quantities. They discovered three separate zones in the targeted factory.

    One of the zones was dedicated to the processing of raw tobacco to produce boxes of cigarettes labeled as well-known brands sold on the legal market. Another zone was dedicated to the storage of large boxes of counterfeit cigarettes. The third zone was used as a living area for the workers with some 15 beds, a kitchen and a living room. This allowed the workers to live at the factory, completely cut off from the outside world. 

    Europol facilitated the information exchange and provided specialized analytical support. On the action day, Europol supported the French authorities by cross-checking operational information against Europol’s databases in real-time and providing leads to investigators in the field. 

    In 2020, Europol created the European Financial and Economic Crime Centre to increase synergies between economic and financial investigations and to strengthen its ability to support law enforcement authorities in effectively combating major criminal threats.

  • French Customs Seize 40 Tons of Counterfeits

    French Customs Seize 40 Tons of Counterfeits

    Photo: Europol

    French Customs arrested two suspected members of a criminal gang and seized 40 tons of counterfeit cigarettes in the Marseille and Paris regions.

    The criminal activities were conducted by an international criminal organization operating from Asia, according to Europol. The criminal group shipped counterfeit cigarettes by container from the Caribbean, the Middle East and Africa, impersonating the names of legitimate importers.

    The commercialization of these cigarettes in France would have represented a tax loss of around €15 million ($16.06 million). The volume of cigarettes confiscated during this operation represents the equivalent of approximately 10 percent of the total seizures made by French Customs in 2021.

    Europol facilitated the information exchange and provided specialized analytical support. On the action day, Europol deployed an expert to France to cross-check operational information against Europol’s databases in real-time and to provide leads to investigators in the field.

    In 2020, Europol created the European Financial and Economic Crime Centre to increase synergies between economic and financial investigations and to strengthen its ability to support law enforcement authorities in effectively combating this major criminal threat.

  • French Experts Call for Tobacco Policy Rethink

    French Experts Call for Tobacco Policy Rethink

    Photo: OceanProd

    Sixteen French doctors, researchers and medical professors have called for government support of vaping in response to a publication by the French High Council for Public Health last year, which was critical of the sector, according to the Independent European Vape Alliance.

    The article, by addiction researcher Benjamin Rolland and pulmonologist Sebastien Couraud published in Le Monde newspaper, equates the High Council’s anti-vape position with unscientific anti-vaccination arguments.

    The article evaluates public health policy developments to combat the Covid-19 pandemic and compares them with government measures to contain the tobacco “epidemic.” Vaccines have been available for more than a year to help reduce the number of infections and severe health damage. 

    Anti-vaxxers rejected these vaccines because there was the absence of information about the long-term effects despite the well-known significant risks of contracting Covid-19. Vaccines helped millions of people and saved a great many lives, but they could have saved many more had opposition to them not been as fierce, according to the article.

    The authors see a parallel to this development in the tobacco epidemic:

    “For many decades now, another pandemic has been raging—that of tobacco addiction. It is responsible for more than 8 million deaths per year (including 75,000 in France),” they write.

    Citing information from the international scientific consortium Cochrane, Rolland and Couraud suggest that e-cigarettes are among the most effective tools to wean smokers off cigarettes.

    However, opponents of vaping often deny the public health potential of reduced-risk alternatives. And their reasoning is reminiscent of the arguments of anti-vaxxers, according to the authors. “Some scientists, however, refuse to promote the vape because of the lack of perspective on the prolonged consequences of this new device in the name of the same precautionary principle as that mentioned above,” they write.

    Pointing to the high relapse rates among smokers seeking to quit with medical cessation devices—an estimated 70 percent to 80 percent of users return to smoking—the authors call on healthcare professionals to recommend e-cigarettes to smoking patients as a significantly less harmful alternative.

  • Illegal Cigarette Factory Dismantled in Slovenia

    Illegal Cigarette Factory Dismantled in Slovenia

    Photo: Europol

    French and Slovenian authorities have dismantled a cigarette factory in Slovenia that was supplying millions of counterfeit cigarettes to France, according to Europol.

    Initiated in October 2020, the investigation focused on an organized crime group involved in the illicit production and distribution of cigarettes. After two successful actions in France in April and May 2021 targeting the criminals involved in the distribution of these counterfeit cigarettes, the Slovenian authorities started a mirror investigation aimed at arresting the suspects responsible for the production of these illegal products.

    On Jan. 25, more than 100 officers from the Slovenian National Police Force and Financial Administration simultaneously raided 11 sites, including industrial premises and private residences. They were assisted in the field by officers from the French Gendarmerie as well as French magistrates from the Bordeaux Interregional Specialized Court and Europol officers. 

    This action uncovered several production sites established in warehouses located in remote areas of Slovenia. In total, more than 26 tons of tobacco were seized in Slovenia as well as 29 million filters, several cigarette-making machines and 10 tons of printed papers for packaging. The seized equipment was capable of producing cigarettes with a value of €13 million on the French market.

    Leaders of the criminal network were arrested in Croatia and Slovenia. They will be handed over to the judicial authorities in Bordeaux.

    In November 2021, the Slovenian Financial Administration seized an additional 12 tons of cut tobacco.