Smoking at beaches, parks, bus stops, and sports venues will be banned from July 1.
Smoking in France will be banned in all outdoor places that children can access, in a bid to create a smoke-free generation, the country’s health minister has announced.
Smoking on beaches, parks, bus stops, and sports venues will be banned from July 1 and rule breakers could be fined over 100 euros, minister Catherine Vautrin revealed on Thursday.
Despite France creating the name ‘Cigarette’ and a culture of smoking them, over recent years their government has been tightening restrictions on tobacco use in public spaces in recent years.
The new ban will cover all spaces where children could be present, including “beaches, parks, public gardens, outside of schools, bus stops and sports venues”, Ms Vautrin explained.
“Tobacco must disappear where there are children,” 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 ban also extends to schools, to stop students smoking in front of them, the AFP news agency reported.
Electronic cigarettes are not covered by the ban and neither will smoking on cafe terraces.
Approximately 12.5% of the UK population are smokers.
The government’s National Anti-Tobacco Programme for 2023 to 2027 proposed a smoking ban similar to the one announced by Vautrin, calling on France to “rise to the challenge of a tobacco-free generation from 2032”.
