Domino effect? France moots public smoking ban

After Ireland, Italy, Sweden or Spain, France could become the next country to introduce a blanket ban on smoking in public areas. That’s what a parliamentary committee recommended this week, after five months of consultations with doctors, tobacconists, and trade unions. According to government figures, some thirty five per cent of the French population uses tobacco, and sixty six thousand die of smoke related illnesses every year. The measure would be enforced from September next year at the latest, though the committee held open a possible delay till summer 2008 for some establishments, including night clubs and restaurants. The tobacco lobby reacted with outrage. But Radio France International’s Nick Champeaux says smokers in Paris are already making the mental adjustments.

Enjoying a cigarette whilst reading the paper at a café counter in the morning, or a small cigar with a glass of brandy after a fine meal, all this may be over soon if the ban goes through. Customers of the “A La Fontaine” Café restaurant here in Paris are getting used to the idea. At least Camille is. She smokes twenty a day, in fact she is smoking now.

“This is one of the best cigarettes, the one after lunch with a glass of wine. All this will be over soon, but we’ll get used to. We’ll be miserable and smoke outside under the rain, and after a while we’ll all give up smoking!“

The “A LA Fontaine restaurant” opened a week ago. Its owner Xavier says the non smoking section is the most comfortable one. He doesn’t think a ban will be bad for business.

“Many customers no longer eat in restaurants because of the smoke, so they are going to come back to us after the ban, so we may loose clients, but we will also attract new ones.”

That’s partly what happened in places where bans are already in force, such as Scotland and Ireland. Surprisingly, public opinion in France is largely in favour of the ban. In fact there was not a single customer against it at the “A la Fontaine” restaurant, so I went to the National Assembly.

I met André Santini there, indulging his cigar smoking habit. He is member of the parliamentary commission which wrote the report, and he is also president of the National Assembly’s cigar amateurs’ club. I told him smoking was bad for his health.

“Churchill carried on smoking cigars until the age of 92, so I can handle it too. I am a defender of the last bastion of freedoms, in a parliament where we are expanding the hair dressing salon and we are closing down the tobacco shop, what kind of segregation is that?”

The tobacco shop of the national assembly is going to close down next year. Mauricette has been working there for almost thirty years, she will retire in six months, and no one will replace her. She is opposed to the ban.

“I think it’s interfering in people’s lives, it’s like seat belts in cars. I don’t believe in passive smoking, what about pollution and pesticides and asbestos, all that’s much worse!”

The tobacco lobby agrees and is warning of dire financial consequences if the ban comes into effect. But Axel Poniatowski, another member of the commission, says the recommendations are reasonable.

“It will still be possible to smoke in restaurants as long as it is outside, secondly even in the workplace, if a company decides to create a smoking area it will be possible for employees to smoke there, thirdly the ban will not come into effect immediately, and tobacconists whose sales are down will receive financial help”

Professor Robert Molimard is France’s most senior medical expert on smoking. He says the ban is good news for both non smokers, and smokers.

“There are a lot of situations that I call signal situations, for instance a coffee break, these situations push smokers to light a cigarette, and there are plenty of them. I believe that suppressing some of these situations, this “environmental stimuli, can help smokers.”

Help smokers give up the habit that is. Professor Molimard says a ban in public areas would be a more efficient alternative to price rises. The government has increased the price of cigarettes twice in the last two years. Molimard says it’s counter-productive, especially for poor people who make-up the majority of smokers in France.

“If you spend so much money on tobacco, you end up putting less meat on the plate of your children, you don’t spend money on doctors, and save money on hygiene.”

The government knows it would be masochistic to introduce a price rise before next April’s presidential elections, but Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced this week he was considering adopting the ban by decree in the next few days.