Sachets of nicotine, tobacco or even aromatic beads for cigarettes… So many products found at the end of high schools, replacing the traditional cigarette. Ditto on the social network TikTok where teenagers and even athletes promote themselves. However, this commodity is causing more and more poisoning, mainly among children and adolescents. It is Anses which is sounding the alarm in a report of toxicovigilance published Thursday November 30, calling for “particular vigilance” on nicotine sachets. For his part, the Minister of Health spoke out in favor of banning nicotine sachets on Tuesday, November 14.
Not only does the offer of related tobacco products – without tobacco but with nicotine – or of flavorings for tobacco products “continue to diversify”, but “older, even prohibited, products are also consumed : chewing tobacco and snus (tobacco in sachets for oral use)”, specifies the health agency. Far from being promoted as an aid to quitting smoking, these products tend to recruit new users.
A report on calls to poison control centers between the beginning of 2017 and the end of 2022 for these five products showed that their number “has continued to increase since 2020” for nicotine sachets, snus and aromatic beads, according to ANSES . “Children and adolescents are the main victims,” she notes. For nicotine or snus sachets, poisonings, sometimes with severe syndromes (prolonged vomiting with risk of dehydration, convulsions, etc.), mainly concern 12-17 year olds, after “intentional” consumption.
Recently appearing, tobacco-free nicotine sachets contain, in a permeable fabric, polymer fibers impregnated with nicotine and slip between the lip and the gum. Taste red fruits, bubble gum or mint, they seem harmless. Except that these sachets sometimes contain five times more nicotine than a traditional cigarette. They can cause damage or infection to the mucous membranes of the mouth.
Around ten children in hospital
Despite a similar presentation, they differ from snus, banned in Europe. Only Sweden, where he comes from, has made an exception for cultural reasons. Given a number of cases “probably underestimated” and “significant advertising on social networks targeting young people”, ANSES considered it “urgent to raise awareness among the educational community, health professionals and those around young people about the risks “, immediate but also nicotine dependence. According to our colleagues at FranceInfo40% of teenagers have heard of it.
Calling for “vigilance” on nicotine sachets “made very attractive for young people”, the coordinator of the study, Cécilia Solal, urged “a regulatory framework for these products”, until now without “clear status” nor “no control”. Guest on the set of Telematin, November 17, Marion Catellin, general director of Alliance Against Tobacco (ACT) denounces “the complete vagueness” regarding these products with “no regulation” either at European level or in France. On November 15, it was the National Committee Against Smoking (CNCT) which recommended a ban on sachets and pearls of nicotine as well as a more general tightening of regulations.
Furthermore, children have also been poisoned – generally not seriously but around ten ended up in hospital – after accidental ingestion of chewing or heating tobacco. ANSES also reports “a new source of domestic accidents with aromatic beads” to be inserted in the cigarette filter, born from a diversion of the ban on aromas for cigarettes or hand-rolling tobacco.
For a less attractive presentation
From three in 2020, calls to Poison Control Centers concerning these products increased to 86 in 2022, in three quarters of cases for children under three years old. It was “always accidental ingestions”, also concerning adults who mistook these marbles for candy or sucked in a poorly inserted marble.
As “the packaging of these products includes drawings of fruit in bright colors and is not equipped with a safety closure”, ANSES calls for a less attractive and more framed presentation. Although their sale to minors is prohibited, tobacco shops do not always comply with the legislation.
On December 4, the National Assembly will have to consider a transpartisan bill to ban puffs, these disposable electronic cigarettes that are so popular with teenagers.