In France, smokers are going on the collar in public areas

In France, a smoking ban in public areas such as beaches, parks and gardens, the surroundings of schools, bus stops and sports facilities will reach from July 1. Smoking is prohibited there by regulation to protect children, Health Minister Catherine Vautrin announced in the interview of the « Ouest France » newspaper. Anyone who violates the new smoking ban has to pay a penalty of 135 euros. The regulation is to be monitored by the municipal police.

« My goal is simple and at the same time extremely ambitious: We want to ensure that the children who are born in 2025 are the first smoke -free generation, » said the minister. This is the meaning of the new bans, which numerous municipalities had previously issued their own direction and which now had been grown nationwide. The outdoor areas of cafés and e-cigarettes are excluded from the ban.

Young people should no longer smoke in front of school

How big the area around schools is, in which the future should no longer be smoked in the future, is just determined, the minister said. The regulation should also prevent pupils from going to smoke in front of the building.

« Every year one of ten deaths is due to smoking, » said the minister. Smoking kills 75,000 people in France every year, which corresponds to more than 200 deaths a day. « It is the most common avoidable cause of death. » In addition, lung cancer causes terrible suffering and cancer cost France 150 billion euros per year.

Prevention shows effect

The freedom of people in France to use a cigarette would not be circumcised by the new bans, said Vautrin. « You can smoke at home and in the permitted areas. Smoking the freedom ends where the right of the children begins in clean air. » You cannot accept avoidable diseases: it has been proven that prevention reduces the risk. In 2023, 15.6 percent of the 17-year-olds had stated that they were smoking, ten years earlier it was twice as much.