France is to ban smoking on all beaches, as well as in public parks, forests and near schools, after Emmanuel Macron promised to create “the first tobacco-free generation” by 2032.
“From now on, no-smoking areas will be the norm,” said the health minister, Aurélien Rousseau.
There are already 7,200 tobacco-free areas in France – including in Nice, on the French Riviera, which was the first to establish a cigarette-free beach in 2012 with the approval of France’s League Against Cancer.
The government said that instead of smoke-free areas being decided by individual local authorities, central government would introduce a nationwide ban. “We are now shifting the responsibility and establishing a principle which will become the rule,” Rousseau said.
Taxes on cigarettes will be increased, with a pack of 20, now priced at about €11 (£9.50), rising to €12 by 2025 and €13 the following year.
The government also wants to ban “puffs”, single-use disposable e-cigarettes that Rousseau said were popular among young people, but which had a heavy impact on health and the environment.
After smoking was banned in French bars and restaurants in 2008 – later than in Britain, Spain or Italy – polls showed widespread approval by the French public.
Tobacco still causes 75,000 avoidable deaths in France each year, and police are facing what the government has called an “explosion” in contraband cigarettes.
Emmanuel Grégoire, the leftwing deputy mayor of Paris, said the capital had been ahead of the government in setting up hundreds of smoke-free areas across the city, including in public playgrounds and outside schools, creches, and sports centres.
Dozens of towns in France have designated non-smoking beach areas in recent years, including Saint-Laurent-du-Var on the Côte d’Azur as well as Saint-Malo and Biarritz. There is also rising concern about the environmental effect of cigarette butts left on beaches, which is the second biggest environmental litter problem in coastal areas after plastic bottles.
In Cannes, which has designated two small parts of its beaches as cigarette-free, the mayor, David Lisnard, a leading figure on the right, questioned the government’s smoking ban on beaches. He wrote on X: “Lots will applaud. Not me,” adding that he felt there were already enough restrictions on freedoms and asking who was going to ensure the ban was respected, suggesting it could fall to mayors.
France’s public health body said last year there were almost 12 million daily smokers in France. Almost 32% of 18- to 75-year-olds said they smoked, and 25% said they smoked daily.
