To date, regulatory tobacco -free spaces such as workplaces, those closed and covered welcoming the public, public transport, schools, children’s playgrounds (since 2015) and the spaces assigned to transport (2019), “are almost well respected”, said to the AFP Philippe Bergerot, president of the Cancer League.
But there are still “gray areas”: school forecourts, unclosed shelters, surroundings of hospitals … According to a survey carried out for the league against cancer, six French in ten (62%) questioned are favorable to a stronger ban on cigarettes in public space.
In November 2023, Aurélien Rousseau, then Minister of Health, presented the National tobacco (PNLT) 2023-2027 program, with the ambition to “take up the challenge of a generation free from tobacco from 2032”.
Among the planned measures: the generalization of tobacco -free spaces with beaches, public parks, forests and outside public places, in particular educational establishments. Financial fines in the event of non-compliance with this prohibition were provided.
“We expected a lot from this NLP, but the implementing decrees planned for 2024 are still in the luggage,” said Mr. Bergerot. “We regularly say to the ministry: +it is not very expensive, the French are favorable +… We do not understand why it blocks”.
“Bush the French”
“The main objective of tobacco are to protect the non-smokers from passive smoking that also kills. Then, it denominates tobacco consumption and leads smokers to gradually consider quitting smoking. It is effective, it has been demonstrated,” Yves Martinet, president of the National Committee against smoking (CNCT), told AFP.
In France, passive tobacco smoke exhibition is 3,000 to 5,000 people per year, according to official figures. Very sensitive, children see increasing their risks of respiratory infections, otitis, asthma … For infants, the risk of sudden death is multiplied by two.
On February 20, the CNCT denounced remarks “unworthy of a cardiologist, and a fortiori, of a Minister of Health” after the declarations of Yannick Neuder. Asked about Sud Radio on the need to ban smoking on the terraces, he had declared that he was “neither for nor against”, adding “that is part of the discussions. We need measures that are acceptable, compatible with everyone”, before concluding: “Let’s stop annoying the French”.
Eager to act, 1,600 volunteer municipalities have expanded the ban on smoking in public places to parks, beaches, ski slopes, school surroundings … ie 7,000 tobacco -free spaces, local experiments accompanied by the League.
She wants the electronic cigarette to be also banished, because it causes nicotine dependence similar to that of cigarettes and constitutes a “dangerous gateway to tobacco”.
It also planned by PNLT 2023-2027, the increase in tobacco prices – one of the most effective measures to reduce consumption according to the World Health Organization (WHO) – has not materialized in the social security financing bill for 2025.
Minister Catherine Vautrin (work, health, solidarity and families) should “express himself on the subject of tobacco in the coming days”, according to a spokesperson.
Tobacco costs 156 billion euros per year to French society (lives, quality of life and lost productivity, public prevention, repression, care …), and alcohol 102 billion, quantified the French observatory of drugs and addictive trends (OFDT).