[Where do Parisian teenagers buy their cigarettes?]

The objective of this work was to assess the background of the implementation of the ban of tobacco sales to minors before the change of French law in 2016.

The analysis focused on two questions to teenagers on buying tobacco, added to the four cross-sectional annual surveys of the association "Paris Sans Tabac" from 2012 to 2015.

In total, 7025 schoolchildren (12-15 years old), 3299 high school students (16-17 years old) and 3243 adult students (18-20 years old) responded. The proportion of daily smokers was respectively 3.2%, 19.0% and 22.0%. The overall smoking rate (daily+occasional) was 13.8%, 37.9% and 39.5% respectively. Among daily smokers, 90.7% of respondents had bought their tobacco from tobacconist. This source was used by 74.6% of daily smokers aged 12-15 years, 92.0% of the 16-17 years old and 94.0% of the18-19 years old teenagers. Drinking more than four glasses of alcohol on the same day or having used cannabis in the preceding month was associated with a greater chance of buying tobacco at the tobacconist. Starting to buy tobacco from a tobacconist below the age of 12 was associated with a high dependence score (HSI=2.4±1.9) compared to those who bought after 15 years (HSI=0.5±0.7) (P<0.001).

Before 2016, Parisian teenagers who smoked daily mostly bought their cigarettes from a tobacconist.