The head of the French anti-addiction agency has labeled e-cigarettes a gateway drug, a claim that contradicts official French statistics and expert regulatory positions.
Dr. Nicolas Prisse, president of the French Interministerial Mission for Combating Drugs and Addictive Behaviors (MILDECA), made these remarks in a sponsored article published on Le Figaro Santé. The official characterized the e-cigarette as a gateway leading to smoking and identified nicotine as the primary source of danger in both smoking and vaping.
The statements have sparked sharp criticism, as they run counter to the French authorities’ own data. According to measurements by the OFDT, which operates under the supervision of MILDECA, daily smoking among high school students plummeted from 17.5 percent to 5.5 percent between 2018 and 2024, while exclusive daily e-cigarette use rose from 0.8 to 4 percent. This shift calls the existence of the classic gateway effect into question.
According to experts, it is not nicotine that is responsible for the serious diseases caused by smoking, but rather the thousands of compounds created during combustion and the tar. Furthermore, the risk assessment by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (Anses) also records that the health risks of e-cigarettes are lower than those of traditional smoking.
In brief
- The president of the French MILDECA identified nicotine as the main danger of smoking in a sponsored newspaper interview.
- According to official OFDT data, smoking among French youth has dropped sharply in parallel with the spread of vaping.
- The vast majority of damage caused by smoking is due to combustion products, not nicotine.
- According to Anses findings, the risks of e-cigarettes are far below the dangers of smoking.
Source: VapingPost FR (fr.vapingpost.com)
This summary was created by artificial intelligence based on the original article.