E-cigarettes: Smoking Pleasure Reinvented? The Many Faces of Harm Reduction in France

Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are growing in popularity among young smokers in France seeking to reduce tobacco-induced harms without abandoning the small everyday pleasures and social relationships that unfold around smoking. But e-cigarettes raise ideological challenges: The World Health Organization and the French Agency for Safety of Medicine and Health Products (Agence Nationale de Sécurité du Médicament) have denied e-cigarettes the status of pharmaceutical substitution products in the cessation of smoking, while their possibilities for pleasure are seen as a threat by France’s public health council, the Haut Conseil de Santé Public. This paper discusses how different actors (policy makers, tobacco companies, and users themselves) have embraced this new technology. I argue that e-cigarettes have become a valued form of substitution precisely because they provide occasions for social bonding, gustatory pleasure, and the non-medicalized management of health with endless possibilities for individualized tailoring.