France 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 on Thursday.
‘Where there are children, tobacco must disappear,’ Catherine Vautrin said in an interview published by the regional Ouest-France.
She added that that the restrictions will come into force on July 1.
Failure to comply with the draconian ban could result in a £114 fine, the minister said, adding that children have the ‘right to breathe clean air.’
Cigarettes will also be banned in areas close to schools to prevent students from ‘smoking in front of their establishments.’
The ban does not apply to cafe terraces or to electronic cigarettes.
Some 75,00 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 favour banning smoking in public spaces.
France will ban smoking in all outdoor places that can be frequented by children
The ban does not apply to cafe terraces or to electronic cigarettes
But cigarette consumption is on the decline among young people in France, according to a study by the French Observatory of Drugs and Addictive Behaviours.
The Health Ministry is also working to ‘lower the permitted nicotine level’ in electronic smoking devices, and is aiming to ‘reduce the number of flavours.’
Today, France’s Spanish neighbours proposed a smoking ban on terraces and open-air nightclubs.
The latest measure, confirmed by Spain’s minister of health Mónica García today, was borne out of an anti-smoking plan approved by autonomous communities at the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System, which sought to expand smoke-free zones across Spain.
Spain’s Ministry of Health is preparing a law to extend smoke-free spaces to terraces, bus stops, work vehicles, uni campuses, communal swimming pools and open-air nightclubs.
The draft bill will need to be approved by Spain’s Council of Ministers before it is sent to the Cortes Generales, the country’s parliament.
The announcement in France also comes as Britain gears up to ban disposable vapes on June 1.
The labour ban – first suggested by the Tory government last January – will come into place after data revealed the horrifying extent of young children addicted to fruit-flavoured vapes.
MPs and campaigners have warned that a ‘woefully inadequate’ number of new recruits hired to enforce the disposable vapes ban will lead to a ‘new era of criminal enterprise’.
In January, scientists found ‘huge and often alarming levels of dangerous metals’ like lead, copper and cadmium in ten unregulated vape products already on the market.
But with less than a week to go before disposable vapes go off the market, experts have warned that millions of Brits will turn to the black market for their nicotine fix.
There are also concerns that without vapes, former smokers will go back to cigarettes.
Nearly two thirds of people who smoke disposable vapes are prepared to buy illicit vapes if they were readily available, according to a new survey.
Last year, the UK government had planned to ban smoking in pub gardens under a tough law which would also prohibit lighting up on restaurant terraces, on the pavement and outside sports stadiums.
But in November, the government dropped plans to ban smoking in outdoor areas like beer gardens and stadiums after a backlash from the hospitality industry.
