France to ban smoking on beaches and close to schools
The French government said on Tuesday it would ban smoking on all the country's beaches, in public parks and forests and near schools, while the price of cigarettes will rise to unprecedented levels.
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"From now on, no-smoking areas will be the norm," Health Minister Aurelien Rousseau told reporters at a presentation of the government's anti-smoking programme.
Rousseau said there were already 7,200 tobacco-free areas in France but they had been mostly designated by local authorities, not the central government.
"We are now shifting the responsibility and establishing a principle which will become the rule."
Taxes on cigarettes will also go up – with a pack of 20, currently at around 11 euros, rising to 12 euros by 2025 and 13 euros the following year.
The government is also planning to ban single-use disposable e-cigarettes that are particularly popular among young people.
The aim is to create "the first tobacco-free generation by 2032", as President Emmanuel Macron had promised, Rousseau said.
According to the online portal Le Monde tu Tabac, which monitors the tobacco industry, in 2022 there were 23,300 tobacco salespoints in France which sold a total of 31 billion cigarettes.
Some 25 percent of people over 18 years old were "daily smokers" of cigarettes, while France also counted some 3 million people who vape on a regular basis.
(with newswires)
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