2023-05-31 18:01:19
According to a latest study by Public Health France, more than a third of French people smoke, and a quarter of them light a cigarette every day. Their numbers are no longer falling, following years of decline.
The number of smokers is stagnating in France, following having fallen sharply each year since the second half of the 2010s. This is the observation made by Public Health France on Tuesday, on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day. And this, despite government efforts to fight once morest smoking, with a steady increase in the price of cigarettes and prevention campaigns.
“Social inequalities”
In its study published on Wednesday, Public Health France highlights “very marked social inequalities (…)” in terms of smoking within the French population. The agency noted a prevalence of daily smoking “significantly higher when the level of diploma is lower”. Nearly a third of people without a baccalaureate are in the habit of smoking daily, compared to 16% of people with a diploma above the baccalaureate.
The third of the population with the lowest incomes is also the group most affected by smoking. Four out of 10 unemployed people smoke daily, compared to 26% of working people and 19% of students.
For some experts, social inequalities in smoking can be seen as a collateral effect of public health campaigns. They have “a greater impact among the more privileged social classes”, according to the president of the Francophone Society of Tabacco, Anne-Laurence Le Faou.
According to the agency, these social inequalities “will be a major challenge for the third national tobacco control program, which will be launched in 2023”. These control plans include “early prevention devices in schools” or help with quitting smoking.
For Anne-Laurence Le Faou, however, “improving the social conditions of these groups of smokers is not a sufficient strategy to reduce smoking prevalence because tobacco addiction is severe”. The tobacco specialist pleads for better help with weaning for parents, for the “improvement of children’s schooling conditions” or even the “fight once morest social isolation”, the “encouragement to obtain a diploma and to access to a professional activity”.
Covid-19 et stress
In addition to social inequalities, researchers from Public Health France believe that the “impact of the health, social and economic crisis linked to Covid-19 cannot be excluded” in the face of this stabilization in the number of smokers “and the increase observed. among certain populations.
The crisis has been anxiety-provoking for a large part of the population, both in terms of health and because of the restrictions put in place by governments. Teleworking, the possible economic losses linked to a slowdown or cessation of activity have also increased the stress of part of the population. These factors may have prompted smokers to continue or resume their tobacco use.
However, the latter note in their report that the crisis has also “affected the least favored populations more” for whom “cigarettes can be perceived as a tool for managing stress and daily difficulties”
“This pandemic may also have had an impact on the mental health of the population, (…) anxiety and depressive disorders (being) associated with smoking”, underlines the study carried out by epidemiologist Anne Pasquereau.
Illustration of this phenomenon linked to the pandemic, attempts to quit smoking linked to the “Month without tobacco” operation decreased during the two years of health crisis, according to the authors of the report.
However, these assumptions need to be qualified. The United States, also affected by the pandemic, has seen tobacco consumption drop to particularly low levels, with one in ten Americans reporting smoking in 2022.
Lower inflation on cigarette pack
The galloping inflation which has been part of the daily life of the French since 2021 and was accentuated last year with the start of the war in Ukraine can also be a source of stress and anxiety and thus promote the desire to smoke a cigarette. . But if the rise in prices has strongly affected food (+12% in 2022), “tobacco prices have only increased very slightly in 2021 and 2022”, notes Public Health France.
These lower increases therefore had the effect of “a relative drop in the price of tobacco compared to other consumer products”, the latter having on average seen their prices increase by 5.9% last year. “A catch-up has been put in place with an increase of 50 cents in March 2023 and an increase of 35 cents planned for 2024”, however note the researchers, who believe that “pricing policy might be a major issue” of the government.
The Alliance Against Tobacco recommends a “gradual and continuous” increase in the price of the package to reach 15 euros in 2027, recalls its president, Dr Loïc Josseran, in an article published this Wednesday by the Institut Montaigne.
If the import of cigarettes from abroad, where the packet sometimes costs less, has not stopped, the Senate voted on Tuesday a reform securing the search capabilities of customs officers, while Bercy published the previous week a 2022 report “exceptional” for the French customs, with in particular a record of 649.07 tons of tobacco and cigarettes seized.
The text also increases the penalty provided for the fraudulent introduction or importation of manufactured tobacco. It is extended from one to three years (ten years in the case of an organized gang). The Senate also voted for a government amendment extending the possibility for customs to use drones, particularly in the fight once morest tobacco trafficking.
Rise in vaping
More than 40% of French people also said they had already tried electronic cigarettes, compared to 38% in 2021. Some 7% of them currently use it, a significant increase since 2016.
Young people may be tempted by the disposable version of these electronic vapers, the “puffs”, which taste like candy and are presented in a particularly attractive way for a teenage audience, with bright colors. “Completely watered down marketing”, denounced on BFMTV Marion Catelin, director of the Alliance once morest tobacco. Puffs also have nicotine, which can create a strong addiction and push young people to consume, later, more classic cigarettes.
The Minister of Health François Braun was in favor of their ban. However, it paved the way for the prescription, by pharmacists, as well as the reimbursement by social security of nicotine substitutes promoting smoking cessation in the form of electronic cigarettes.
A measure which must be supervised, according to the associations for the fight once morest smoking, with in particular a follow-up over several weeks or months of the patients who benefit from these prescriptions, so that the “smoker does not become a vaper”, according to the words of the president. of the Alliance Against Tobacco on Sud Radio on Monday.
Less strict regulations than in other countries
Since 1991 and the Evin law, France has adopted a law to fight once morest smoking. This was followed by bans on smoking in certain public places, such as restaurants (2004), then in health establishments, public transport, schools and workplaces (2007).
But some countries even prohibit the consumption of tobacco on the terraces of bars and cafes, or in public places outdoors, which is not currently the subject of any law in France. Eager to also fight once morest passive smoking through the inhalation of smoke by non-smokers, several municipalities then took the issue head on to establish tobacco-free spaces in parks or gardens. This is particularly the case of Argenteuil, in Val-d’Oise.
“It’s a good thing for citizens, for people who don’t smoke, and also for children”, reacted to the microphone of BFMTV a resident of the town this Wednesday morning, in favor of “we force a things a little bit” to reduce the “nuisance” associated with cigarette smoke.
“These decisions (…) also make it possible to exclude tobacco from our daily lives. They thus give smokers the opportunity to associate friendly and pleasant moments with the places and people around them rather than with cigarettes” , abounds Dr. Loïc Josseran in his article.
Sweden, best student in the EU?
The “first” country to restrict smoking in public spaces, “first in playgrounds and following-school centres, then in restaurants, outdoor cafes and public places such as bus stations” was Sweden, according to Ulrika Arehed, head of the Swedish Cancer Society, according to comments reported by the agency Associated Press. But in this country too, the proportion of smokers, although having decreased drastically, remains greater among the most disadvantaged.
Sweden is set to become Europe’s first ‘tobacco-free’ country (meaning it will have less than 5% smokers in its population), as daily cigarette smoking declines , according to AP. Last year, 5.6% of Swedes over the age of 15 smoked daily according to data from the Swedish Public Health Agency, compared to 18.5% of European Union citizens in 2019, according to Eurostat.
In the early 2000s, one in five Swedes smoked. Experts attribute the drastic decrease in the number of smokers in Sweden to decades of awareness campaigns as well as anti-smoking legislation. Others point to “snus”, a chewing tobacco presented in the northern European country as an alternative to cigarettes but banned for sale in many other member countries of the European Union, such as France, because containing nicotine and inducing a strong addiction.
In France, teenagers have suffered discomfort following illegally obtaining and consuming snus. According to the French Alliance Against Tobacco, these small, discreet sachets can also promote the appearance of pancreatic cancer, lead to lesions of the mucous membranes in the mouth and irreversible retraction of the gums.
“Switching from one harmful product to another is not a solution,” the WHO said in an email to AP.
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