French Minister of Health and Prevention, Rousseau, has presented the 2023-2027 Tobacco Control Programme. Among the measures, the French Government will extend the ban on smoking throughout the country in beaches, parks, forests, public spaces and school areas. Until now the ban was in the hands of each municipality, but now it is applied throughout the country.

The price of the tobacco package will also be increased. Starting from 2024, it will increase progressively from EUR 11 to EUR 13 by 2027. However, anti-smoking associations have called for a minimum increase of EUR 16.

“Smoking bans and price increases work and are very effective,” says Rousseau. It reports that in the first half of 2024 the French Government will adopt a Decree-Law to generalize this prohibition: "It will be the norm not smoking tobacco."

Based on the data, Rousseau points out that smoking is “the first preventable cause of death”: “It causes 75,000 deaths a year and 200 a day.”

Fashion of electronic cigarettes

French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron stressed that the focus will be on young people and that the government’s main objective is to achieve a “tobacco-free generation”. Thus, electronic cigarettes will be prohibited in the face of the rise of their use among young people: "It is an aberration, both from the point of view of public health and its effects on the environment."