The French government wants to turn around the fight against tobacco, after noting that consumption has increased, for which it intends to ban disposable electronic cigarettes, which are a gateway to the habit among young people.
In an interview broadcast this Sunday by RTL, the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, justified the measure by stating that cigarettes instill bad habits in young people. “You could say that there is no nicotine, but it is a reflex and a gesture that young people get used to. That’s how they start smoking.”
The prime minister, who announced the forthcoming presentation of a national anti-smoking plan, lamented that consumption has increased and insisted that it causes “75,000 deaths a year”, a “huge” figure.
He recalled that taxes on tobacco, which increased this year, will not rise again soon, stressing: “That does not mean that we are not very attentive” to consumption.
On April 30, a group of tobacco doctors and environmental defenders launched a petition to ban disposable electronic cigarettes, which will hit the French market in 2021 because, in addition to the health consequences, they represent a serious problem for the environment. as they contain plastic materials and a lithium battery.
In another context, Borne once again defended the general prohibition in public schools, in the name of secularism, of the use of the abaya, a dress that covers women from head to toe, hiding the shape of the body, worn by the Muslim community. .
The minister stressed that all citizens, whatever their religion, have their space in France. “There is a principle of secularism. And there is a law that prohibits wearing any symbol or clothing through which a student manifests his religion. The law must apply to everyone,” he justified.
On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron had already warned that the law would apply.
Source: TSF
