France, a country of smokers, will ban smoking in all outdoor places that can be frequented by children, like beaches, parks and bus stops, the health and family minister said in an interview published on Thursday.
“Tobacco must disappear where there are children,” Catherine Vautrin said in an interview published by the regional Ouest-France daily on its website.
The freedom to smoke “stops where children’s right to breathe clean air starts,” she said.
The restrictions will enter into force on July 1 and will include all places where children could be, such as “beaches, parks, public gardens, outside of schools, bus stops and sports venues,” she said.
Violators could be fined up to 135 euros ($154), she said.
Related: heavy smoking and stroke
Chris Dorsett, Ocean Conservancy’s Vice President of Conservation, said the news is goof for people and the planet: “Not only does banning smoking in public places protect public health, but it will also make a huge impact in keeping our ocean and beaches clean.
According to Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup data, cigarette butts are the number one most commonly found item polluting beaches and waterways in Europe and worldwide. In addition to shedding dangerous microplastic fibers, cigarette butts also leach chemicals into the environment, harming sensitive marine ecosystems. We applaud France for taking this important step to protect people and the environment from the threat of cigarette pollution.”
Israel and Sweden’s Andreas Weil, for instance, has led massive cigarette butt pickups and educations about smoking on the beaches of Tel Aviv and around the country.
Since 1986, volunteers with Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup have collected 63 million cigarette butts worldwide. In 2023 – the most recent year for which we have data, 323,431 cigarette butts were collected from beaches and waterways in Europe alone.
As for the ban, Parisian cafe terraces will be excluded from the ban, which will also not extend to electronic cigarettes.
Some 75,000 people are estimated to die from tobacco-related complications each year in France.
According to a recent opinion survey, six out of 10 French people (62%) favour banning smoking in public places. Given the large number of Arab and North African population in France, we hope the ban extends to shisha pipes, which are thought to be safe because the tobacco smells like fruit, when in fact toxin levels can be found to be much higher than regular nicotine cigarattes.
