“In France 13 million adults smoke daily. And the situation is getting worse. The number of smokers is increasing, especially among young people. We can no longer resign ourselves to the fact that tobacco kills 73,000 people each year in our country, or the equivalent of one airliner crash per day, with 200 passengers on board! We can no longer accept this scourge which kills twenty times more than road accidents, even though it is preventable “.
It is by drawing up this overwhelming observation that Marisol Touraine, Minister of Social Affairs and Health, presented the main lines of the National Smoking Reduction Program (PNRT) to the Council of Ministers.
The main objectives of this plan:
A 10% drop in smokers within 5 years
Drop below 20% smokers within 10 years
May the young people born today be the first generation of non-smokers 20 years from now.
Vaping prohibited in certain public places
E-cigarette is not spared by this anti-smoking program. As the Minister announced: advertising for electronic cigarettes will be limited, then definitively banned on May 20, 2016, except on points of sale and in publications intended for professionals in the sale of tobacco and electronic cigarettes.
In addition, vaping will be banned in some public places. “In accordance with the opinion of the Council of State of October 17, 2013, electronic cigarettes will be prohibited in establishments accommodating minors (schools, for example) in all means of public transport and in all collective enclosed work spaces “.
Despite everything, the minister brings a downside: no question of confusing cigarettes and electronic cigarettes. “It is better to vape than to smoke. Anything that can help smokers quit is safe to take, including electronic cigarettes. But, for a young person who has never smoked, the electronic cigarette can become a gateway to smoking ”.
For the minister, the use of electronic cigarettes in public places tends to trivialize the attitude of the smoker and therefore goes against the tobacco control policies carried out nationally and internationally for several dozen years. years. She recalls that many internal regulations of transport companies, as well as municipal decrees, have already adopted a ban on vaping, “which shows the need to clarify the situation.”
How the measure will be implemented
Advertising for electronic cigarettes will be framed by a circular signed by the Minister of Social Affairs, Health and Women’s Rights today. And the total ban on advertising for this product, as provided for by the European directive of April 3, 2014, will come into force on May 20, 2016.
The ban on vaping in certain public places will be incorporated into the health bill, by amendment, on the occasion of its next examination in Parliament.
And you, are you for or against electronic cigarettes in the workplace? Talk about it on our forum.
