Paris (AFP)

Worried by the public's "confusion" after the death toll in the United States, industry players and addiction doctors are stepping up to defend the e-cigarette as a safe and effective way to stop smoking.

"Vape is an effective tool for reducing risks," said Prof. Benoît Vallet, former director general of health (the number 2 of the ministry), Monday at the forum of the Summit of the vape in Paris.

Organized by the pro-vaping Sovape association, this event took on a particular importance because of the mysterious epidemic that has so far left 26 dead and 1,300 severe pulmonary patients in the United States.

"The most damaging is that it casts doubt," says AFP Sebastien Roux, general manager of another structure of the sector, the Crivape, which organizes Thursday in Paris its own round table.

In three quarters of cases, American patients have consumed in their electronic cigarette products THC, the psychoactive agent of cannabis, often bought illegally. But the exact causes of the epidemic are still unknown.

Since its launch this summer, the pro-vaping are trying to distinguish the French and American situations. "The US market is much less regulated, and here you can not put anything in a liquid," says Roux.

However, difficult to dispel the fears of the general public, sighs the players in the sector.

According to a BVA survey conducted for Sovape in September, 3 in 5 French people now think that vaping is at least as dangerous as smoking, contrary to the scientific consensus.

With 1.8 million daily vapers and 820 million euros in turnover, France is the world's third largest e-cigarette market after the United States and the United Kingdom, according to a study by the firm Xerfi in 2018.

But because of the American epidemic, the French shops "saw their average turnover drop by 20 to 30%," says Sovape.

"On the contrary, in September, sales of tobacco have almost not declined.If this is confirmed, it will demonstrate that denigrating at this point the vape makes people continue to smoke", alarmed the AFP on pneumologist Bertrand Dautzenberg, another speaker from the summit of the vape. Tobacco causes 75,000 deaths a year in France, mainly cancer and cardiovascular problems.

- "Paradox" -

"Burning kills, misinformation too," on his side Jacques Le Houezec, addiction specialist and former president of Sovape.

"Tobacco smoke is a complex mixture that contains 7,000 compounds and 69 carcinogens," he continues.

Vaping consists of inhaling vapors created by heating, not burning, a liquid that contains mostly nicotine, highly addictive but not carcinogenic.

This is why doctors consider that if we smoke already, vaping is less harmful than cigarettes.

Despite this, calls for caution are increasing in recent months, due to the limited decline available on e-cigarettes, sold since the mid-2000s.

In July, the World Health Organization (WHO) ruled that these devices were "probably less toxic than cigarettes" but were "unquestionably harmful and (should) be regulated".

The prestigious British magazine The Lancet, has just published a severe editorial calling to put on the same plane vaping and cigarettes in terms of public health.

"Manufacturers of e-cigarettes and some public health experts see them as a weaning tool and a safer alternative to cigarettes, but there is little evidence to support these claims," ​​says The Lancet.

These uncertainties explain why the Ministry of Health, like the WHO, does not include vaping in its smoking prevention arsenal (price increases, reimbursement of patches and Operation No Tobacco Month, which will start on November 1st).

At the same time, the Public Health Agency France estimates that 700,000 daily smokers stopped smoking with the help of the electronic cigarette between 2010 and 2017.

Benoît Vallet sees "the paradox of a precautionary principle that opposes a risk reduction method".

© 2019 AFP