France to ban smoking in parks, beaches, and near schools

PARIS (AP) – France has struggled to kick its smoking habit. A new public health decree published Saturday aims to change that.

In the coming days, smoking will be banned in all French parks and sports venues, at beaches and bus stops, in a perimeter around all schools, and anywhere children could gather in public.

In a country where smoking has for generations been glamorized in cinema and intertwined with the national image, government crackdowns on tobacco use have met resistance.

“In France, we still have this mindset of saying, ‘this is a law that restricts freedom,”’ Philippe Bergerot, president of the French League Against Cancer, told the Associated Press.

The ban aims ”to promote what we call denormalization. In people’s minds, smoking is normal,” he said. ”We aren’t banning smoking; we are banning smoking in certain places where it could potentially affect people’s health and … young people.”

It’s been illegal to smoke in restaurants, bars and public buildings since a series of bans in 2007 and 2008. Ever-higher taxes mean a pack now costs upwards of 12 euros ($14).

Yet more than 30% of French adults still smoke cigarettes, most of them daily, one of the higher rates in Europe and globally. The Health Ministry is particularly concerned that tobacco remains popular among young people, citing public health statistics showing that 15% of 17-year-olds smoke. Black market cigarette trading is common.

More than 200 people in France die each day of tobacco-related illness, Health Minister Catherine Vautrin said in a statement Saturday. That adds up to some 75,000 deaths per year.

In a Paris park as the ban loomed, views were mixed.

Parisian Natacha Uzan welcomed the énd of smoking in restaurants. But she said: ”Now outside, in parks, I find it becoming a bit repressive.”

The broader ban is a ”good thing” for Anabelle Cermell, mother of a 3-month-old boy. ”I tell myself, oh, it’s really not ideal for him, but there’s not much I can do about it, or I would have to … not take the bus, not go to parks.”

The government said last month that the new ban would take effect July 1. The official decree introducing the ban was published Saturday, and a health minister’s statement said that a government order specifying the perimeters set by the ban would be published in the coming days.

Electronic cigarettes are exempt from the new ban.

Other European countries have gone farther. Britain and Sweden have tightened smoking regulations in public spaces. Spain is extending its smoking ban to café and restaurant terraces, which are exempt from France’s new ban.

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Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.