The government wants to “emerge the first generation without tobacco” in France. This Thursday, May 29, the Minister of Labor, Health, Solidarity and families Catherine Vautrin announces the draconian measures against smoking in the process.
The government member first recalls the immense cost for public health that cigarettes represents: “Every year, one in ten deaths is linked to tobacco. Smoking kills 75,000 people in France. This represents more than 200 dead per day. This is the first cause of evitable mortality.”
As a result, the government wants to protect the French from danger, starting with the most fragile children. The minister announces that as of July 1, the places where they are present must be free of cigarettes.
The electronic cigarette not worried
“Where there are children, tobacco must disappear. Already on July 1, beaches, parks and public gardens, the surroundings of schools, shelters, the sports team will be, everywhere in France, spaces without tobacco. Therefore, smoking will be prohibited, to protect our children,” announces our colleagues.
The exact methods of this decree will be published in concert with the State Council, in particular the perimeter of exclusion in schools.
These school zones are also in the heart of public action, the authorities who want to prevent parents from smoking while waiting for their children, but also that high school or high school students smoke near the school.
However, keep in mind that electronic cigarette will not be affected by these new measures, although the government is working on very specific actions for this mode of consumption.
A pure and simple smoking for minors?
Among the youngest, the consumption of cigarettes is decreasing, as supported by a study by the French Drug Observatory and Dovering Addictive (OFDT) published on Tuesday, May 20.
“We have demonstrated in recent years that in adolescent populations (miners, university students, high school students) there really was a very strong fall in tobacco experimentation, but also smoking,” said BFMTV Stanislas Spilka, statistical and director of the general population of the observatory.
But for Catherine Vautrin, there is a paradox. If minors buy tobacco products, consumption remains authorized. When asked about the need to completely prohibit consumption, the government member says “nothing forbidden in the future”, but the judges that the fight presented this Thursday “will probably highlight the first free tobacco generation.”
In the United Kingdom, public authorities have opted for a particularly radical option. A law approved in 2024 has made tobacco purchase illegal for people under 15, a life prohibition.
Source: BFM TV
