She feels like coming back. Or rather many tastes, fruits, candy, unicorn (!) or even coffee latte. In just a few months and with a list of flavors that would make ice cream parlors green, the Puff won over teenagers, fans of this colourful, disposable and sweet-smelling electronic cigarette.
If they are – on paper – prohibited for sale to minors, many college and high school students obtain them without problem, and vape these single-use e-cigarettes, “which makes them a gateway to tobacco,” laments Professor Loïc Josseran, president of ACT-Alliance Against Tobacco. He is organizing a press briefing this Thursday alongside MP Francesca Pasquini and other parliamentarians who co-signed the bill aimed at banning the sale of Puff. But in addition to its addictive potential, whether or not it contains nicotine, what effects does Puff have on the health of teenagers?
Aromas with unknown effects
The Puff surge is recent. “It is a product that has only existed since the summer of 2020 on the American market, and which arrived in 2021 in Europe. He found his audience at an incredible speed, traces Professor Josseran. Consequently, there is a lack of hindsight to know the extent of its effects. Especially since there is a big unknown about the composition of flavored liquids that do not contain nicotine: they are neither tested nor subject to regulation before they are put on the market”. Gold, ANSES “finds that vaping liquids without nicotine, with concentrated aromas with multiple flavors, are widely used by vapers. However, neither the protective provisions for health such as the prohibitions of certain ingredients, nor the reporting obligations to which manufacturers of vaping products are subject relate to products without nicotine”.
Result, for these disposable e-cigarettes, “there is a total blur, deplores Professor Josseran. But do you believe that a Puff flavored with strawberry candy is made from a tray of fresh fruit? To offer this multitude of perfumes, manufacturers necessarily have recourse to an arsenal of chemical molecules of which we know little or nothing. Do their liquids contain problematic additives, do they have endocrine disrupting effects? We don’t know, we are in a total absence of data”.
But “what is certain is that the lungs are not made to inhale strawberry candy aromas, adds Professor Yves Martinet, pulmonologist and president of the National Committee against Smoking (CNCT). Flavorings used by the food industry which, from a digestive point of view, do not pose any particular problems. But nothing is known of the possible deleterious effects when they are heated and pass through the respiratory tract”. The heating process can thus “produce chemicals like formaldehyde and other contaminants, including nickel, tin and aluminum”, warns Canadian Lung Association.
“Asthma-like syndromes” and cardiovascular risks
If for smokers in search of smoking cessation, the e-cigarette is a less harmful solution than the classic cigarette, for young teenagers who have never smoked, the Puff is not without risk for their respiratory health. “Consuming it can cause asthmatic syndromes, with specific irritation of the respiratory tract, says Professor Josseran. The respiratory tract is inflamed, therefore more susceptible to infection. We contract viruses more easily, so we fall ill more easily. A greater sensitivity which multiplies respiratory allergies tenfold”.
“An irritation caused in particular by the nicotine salts contained in the nicotine puffs, which cause coughing”, adds Professor Martinet. “Synthetic nicotine whose biological effects have never been studied,” says Professor Josseran. Fortunately, the respiratory consequences are reversible when consumption is stopped”.
On the other hand, this disposable e-cigarette poses risks to cardiovascular health. And several factors are involved. Liquids first. “Certain aromatic components tending towards vanilla can cause cardiac conduction problems with rhythm disturbances”, explains Professor Josseran. “aromas” [de vanille] which induce toxicity in the pulmonary and cardiovascular systems”, confirms a study carried out by researchers from the UNC School of Medicine, in North Carolina (United States). “There is also the presence of fine particles in the aerosol of these products, which contribute to the development of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases”, warns Professor Martinet.
Brain development disorders and learning delays
And the list of harms for the youngest does not stop there. “When they contain nicotine, Puffs present a high risk of addiction and a transition to tobacco and cannabis,” continues Professor Martinet. And nicotine “is not neutral at the cerebral level, especially on young and maturing brains, insists Professor Josseran: this leads to disorders of brain development, cognition, behavior, concentration and delays. of learning”. Real effects, with “modifications visible on brain MRIs”, specifies Professor Martinet.
But “the Puff is so easy to access, regrets Loïc Josseran. A survey conducted by the ACT shows that 13% of 13-16 year olds have already tested it, and 9% have already bought it. There is an urgent need to ban it from sale and, in the meantime, to inform parents of the health risks it represents for their children”.
A wish that could soon come true. On May 3, the Minister of Health, François Braun, said he was “favorable” to its ban. A prohibition that could appear in the next Social Security financing law or in “other laws before the end of the year”.