1 month Ago
The new ban will include beaches, parks, public gardens, school-adjacent areas, bus stops and sports facilities. Tobacco must disappear in the presence of children," Vautrin said, adding that clean air was a right children hold precedence over adults' freedom to smoke.
But outdoor café and bar terraces, known as terrasses, will be exempt from the ban.
Enforcement and Penalties
The penalty for anyone caught smoking will be a €135 fine (or about £113 or $153). Vautrin predicted that the police will enforce the law of the land – but she still thinks that people can aid in their own self-regulation.
The current ban does not cover electronic cigarettes, but the minister is intending to limit their nicotine content as well at a later date.
Support and Background
The move reflects the fact that France now has its lowest rate of smoking on record. Nearly one out of four French people, or 23.1 percent, are daily smokers, a decline of more than five percentage points since 2014, according to the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
Yet smoking remains a serious public health problem in France. ''Over 75,000 mainly young people die of tobacco related illnesses every year, constituting 13 per cent of the total number of deaths.
Smoking indoors (in restaurants or nightclubs, for example) has been outlawed since 2008, and a new law for banning smoking in the great outdoors was postponed in 2024 because of a missing decree. Even so, more than 1,500 towns had already voluntarily prohibited smoking in public areas, and hundreds of beaches were smoke-free.
There is strong support for the new rule. According to a report from La Ligue Contre le Cancer, almost 80% of French citizens support a total smoking ban in the public space, in places such as woodlands, beaches, parks and terraces.
