France: France will ban smoking on all beaches, as well as in public parks, forests, and near schools, after Mr. Emmanuel Macron, France’s President, vowed to create “the first tobacco-free generation” by 2032.
The French health minister, Mr. Aurélien Rousseau, stated that, “From now on, no-smoking areas will be the norm.”
France currently has 7,200 tobacco-free zones, with Nice being the first. In 2012, the French League Against Cancer approved the establishment of a cigarette-free beach in Nice, located on the French Riviera.
The central government announced that it would impose a national ban on smoking rather than letting local governments determine which areas are smoke-free. “We are now shifting the responsibility and establishing a principle which will become the rule,” Mr. Rousseau remarked.
Taxes on cigarettes will be increased, with a pack of 20, now priced at about $12.4, rising to $13.6 by 2025 and $14.7 the following year.
The government also wants to outlaw “puffs,” which are disposable, single-use e-cigarettes that are popular among youth but have negative effects on the environment and public health, according to Mr. Rousseau.
Surveys conducted in 2008 revealed that the French public overwhelmingly approved of the smoking ban that was imposed in French bars and restaurants, which came into effect later than in Britain, Spain, or Italy.
In France, tobacco use still results in 75,000 preventable deaths annually, and authorities are dealing with an “explosion” of illegal cigarettes, as per the government.
Mr. Emmanuel Grégoire, the leftwing deputy mayor of Paris, noted that the capital had established hundreds of smoke-free zones throughout the city before the government did, including outside of sports facilities, creches, and public playgrounds.
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