Brits heading to France on their holidays have been issues a stark warning by the country’s health minister.
While we don’t always have the best reputation for going abroad, the new changes are actually nothing to do with us, which is nice.
But the reported 13 million Brits, that visit France each year, will need to pay close attention to this one.
President Emmanuel Macron made it clear he wants to make France the ‘first tobacco-free generation’ by 2032 and it seems the nation has already got the blunt, I mean ball, rolling.
As part of a national anti-tobacco campaign, the French are cracking down on the use of Tobacco products, which cause 75,000 avoidable deaths a year.
The reported 13,000,000 Brits, that visit France each year, will need to pay close attention to this one. Credit: Getty stock images
France minister of health and prevention Aurelien Rousseau has unveiled a plan to ban smoking on beaches, in public parks, forests and other public areas.
“Beaches, parks, around schools – lots of places had started these experiments and now, it’s true, we’re heading to a general rule to show our determination,” he said, according to AP.
“From now on, no-smoking areas will be the norm.”
Further details of the proposal are yet to be unveiled.
The mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard, has questioned the government’s plans.
He wrote on X (Twitter): “Lots will applaud. Not me.”
Well, earlier this year, it was reported that France were struggling to stub out the rise of contraband cigarettes.
Bertrand Kern, Pantin’s Socialist mayor, said: “It’s a similar mechanism as cannabis – you have apartments where the packets of cigarettes are stocked, and people who deliver them regularly so that the sellers only have three or four packets on them, which means for prosecutors it’s very hard to pursue.”
France minister of health and prevention, Aurelien Rousseau, unveiled a plan to ban smoking on beaches, in public parks, forests and other public areas. Credit: Getty stock images
“There have always been attempts by criminals to produce cigarettes illegally,” said Sebastian Bley, of Europol’s European Financial and Economic Crime Centre.
“But we’re seeing an increasing trend for this over the past couple of years, and it is moving west.”
He identified ‘a strong increase, particularly in countries which have a high number of smokers and where there are high cigarette prices’.
At her independent bookshop near Hoche station, Morgane Payock-Monthé said: “This is about who is illegally occupying the public space.
“Sometimes there have been so many cigarette sellers, childminders with pushchairs can’t get past. Sometimes the sellers fight, pushing each other up against our windows. It’s becoming difficult for everyone.”
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