A man smokes a cigarette outside a brewery, in front of a sticker on a window while reading: “Smoking is prohibited.”
Jacques Brinon / AP
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Jacques Brinon / AP
Paris – France will prohibit smoking on the beaches, in public gardens and near schools from July 1 in an effort to protect young people from tobacco and limit the influence of smokers on them.
“Tobacco must disappear where there are children,” said Minister of Health, Catherine Vautrin, in an interview with a French newspaper In French THURSDAY. Vautrin stressed that freedom of smoking “ends where children ‘right begins to breathe clean air”.
Intermediate and secondary schools will also be affected by the ban, in particular to prevent “smoking students in front of their schools,” said Vautrin.
Any American visitor in France will be struck by the number of smokers in general and in particular the number of young people blow On the coffee terraces.
But the use of tobacco in France has in fact been on the decline in recent years. Smoking has been at its lowest level since the 1990s, 23% of the adult population reporting lighting every day. Tobacco consumption is also down among young people – only 16% of 17 -year -olds report smoking, while six years ago, it was 25%.
The expansion of smoke -free areas is one of the measures described in a national plan aimed at reducing tobacco consumption and reaching a tobacco -free generation by 2032. The fact of not complying with the prohibition could lead to a fine of € 135.
Nearly 7,000 smoke -free areas have already been created by 1,600 volunteer towns and villages, including beaches, parks, ski slopes and areas around schools.
The new measure has strong public support. According to a survey carried out for the French League against Cancer78% of respondents wanted to remove cigarettes in new public spaces.
Addressing the newspaper Le Monde, Daniel Thomas, spokesperson for the French Tobacco Society, described it as “excellent measure” which “widens space to denormize the use of tobacco”.
France for the first time prohibited smoking in public buildings in 2007, a ban extended Cafés, restaurants and nightclubs in 2008. Many thought that the group would be difficult to apply given the place that Smoky coffee holds in the French cultural tradition.
Although he immediately succeeded, smokers simply migrated outside, transforming the sidewalk into a place to avoid if you are not a smoker.
The French Ministry of Health Assigns around 200 deaths per day to tobacco consumption, making it the main cause of preventable death.
The societal cost of tobacco is estimated at 156 billion euros per year. It is also a major pollutant, with 20,000 to 25,000 metric tonnes of cigarette butts thrown each year.
The city of Paris has just launched a new campaign to reduce the 2 billion cigarette butts that stays in its streets each year.
The new ban will not apply to electronic cigarettes, which have increased in the past five years with 6% of adults saying that they use them now.
On a park bench under a tree in Paris 15th arrondissement, the 26 -year -old student Ouader Thevet takes advantage of smoke. Children play on a nearby jungle gym. Even if he will not be able to do it after June, Thevet says he is for the measure.
“We can always find other places of smoking such as outdoor cafes,” he said. “It hurts children so we shouldn’t do it around them.”
Thevet says he became a smoker after getting wrong with cigarettes with his friends in adolescence. He thinks that the measure could have a big impact.
“I think that restricting the places where you can smoke could actually grow a lot of people to stop.”
