E-cigarettes to be investigated

NEW electronic cigarettes are to be investigated by public health officials after Health Minister Marisol Touraine asked for an inquiry.

She was reacting to the news that “hundreds of thousands” of French people trying to give up smoking were turning to the substitutes, with as yet unknown health consequences.

Made to look like cigarettes, the electronic versions heat a solution of propylene glycol, glycerine, food flavourings and nicotine that “smokers” – known as “vapers” - breathe in.

People use them where smoking is banned and they are seen by many as a safe alternative as they contain no tar. They give off what looks like smoke, but is largely water vapour.

There have been calls for them to be treated in the same way as medicines but the health watchdog Afssaps and medicines watchdog ANSM have already warned in 2011 that people should not use e-cigarettes.

They are barred from sale in pharmacies but small back-street shops have sprung up all over France, largely unregulated, and on the internet.

Leading internet sales outlet Thefuu.com said e-cigarette sales had helped cut tobacco sales – something government anti-tobacco advertising had not succeeded in doing. “Why should e-cigarettes be treated as medicines when, at the same time, tobacco cigarettes continue to be sold everywhere, without prescription, without quality control and with the only restriction on usage being a high price?”