Smoking In France Not So Glamorous Anymore: Anti Tobacco Laws Get Tough

04.12.2023 - 09:43 / forbes.com

If the government expectations come to fruition, the image of the French “bon vivant,” sitting at a street cafe with a glass of wine in one hand and a cigarette in the other, is in the process of finally changing.

New tougher anti-tobacco measures announced by the government are intended to say “au revoir” to the ‘national habit’ of smoking by preventing new people from taking it up, particularly the young, with the goal of creating “the first tobacco-free generation” by 2032.

“From now on, no-smoking areas will be the norm,” said the health minister, Aurélien Rousseau.

Although smoking has decreased in France compared to the past, the nation still counts 12 million daily smokers among the adult population, a level that hasn’t changed for several years. Its prevalence is still a culture shock for many tourists who visit the country.

According to the latest study by Public Health France published on May 31, one quarter of French adults smoke daily.

Eurostat data shows that the daily percentage of smokers in France is higher than the European Union average. Around 22% of people aged 15 and older smoke daily in the country compared to just under 19% in the E.U.

French films, art works, posters and advertisement have always glamorised smoking. “French cinema is still addicted to showing smoking on screen and the practice features in nearly all the country's films,” the BBC reported in an article citing a study by the French League Against Cancer.

"Tobacco remains quasi-ubiquitous in French films," the League reports, adding that through 2021 “smoking gets 2.6 minutes of screen time on average per film -- the equivalent of six adverts.”

“Nearly half a century since stars like Jeanne Moreau and Brigitte Bardot lit up seductively during the French New Wave, some 90% of 150 films from 2015 to 2019 surveyed by the League contained a ‘smoking event’.”

A report published in August by France’s Observatory of Drugs and Addiction Trends (OFDT), “found that France lost more money to lives lost and alcohol and tobacco prevention campaigns than it gains from taxes on those products,” writes Euronews.

Tobacco smoking costs the state €156 billion in lives, loss of quality of life for patients with cancer from smoking and state spending on prevention and care, the OFDT reports.

With 75,000 deaths per year, tobacco represents the leading cause of avoidable mortality in the country.

Smoking is the main cause of premature death in the European Union and kills around 700,000 people every year.

The new measures by the government intend to reduce the number of smokers by expanding the list of places where lighting a cigarette is prohibited but also by continuing to increase the price of a pack of cigarettes.

Although smoking