Friday, October 4, 2019
Despite anti-tobacco campaigns, prevention is not yet effective in France. Many tobacconists do not play the game and sell cigarettes to minors.
Tobacco sales to minors: signage problems
In France, minors are prohibited from buying cigarettes. A measure dating from 2009 and intended to protect them from smoking. But in practice, it is not applied. Indeed, 94% of daily smokers aged 17 regularly buy their cigarettes from a tobacconist.
According to the National Committee against smoking (CNCT) which carried out an investigation at the request of the Ministry of Health, French tobacconists are very bad students. Thus, 40% of them do not display the signage supposed to be visible in their tobacco shop. Furthermore, they almost never control the age of the minor by asking for his identity document.
Too many tobacconists do not apply the law
Even worse : ” About 10% of tobacconists agree to sell to 12-year-old children who were all non-smokers and two-thirds of tobacconists sell to minors under 17 (65.2%) »Reveals the investigation. At last, ” if the young person is a smoker, the sale occurs in 93% of cases “.
An alarming situation, especially since we know that when adolescents smoke they very often become addicted as adults.
Note that it is in large and medium-sized towns that the law is least applied. Therefore, the association is asking the authorities concerned to check tobacco shops with penalties for non-compliance with the law.
Perrine Deurot-Bien
Read also: Electronic cigarette: surveillance is strengthened in France
