HEALTH: France Set to Ban Public Smoking

Julio Godoy

PARIS, Sep 19 2006 (IPS) – New evidence on the harmful effects of passive smoking has led France to consider a total ban on smoking in work and public places.
The ban is likely to be total, following a parliamentary debate that began Sep. 12.

In the face of the requirements to protect public health and the security of workers, the only closed places where a legitimate prohibition of smoking cannot be considered are private homes, according to a note prepared by a commission appointed by the parliament this summer.

The commission rejects exceptions for places such as discotheques and casinos. Such an exception would be inadmissible, for it would mean that people would be treated differently depending on their work places, the paper says.

Health minister Xavier Bertrand has already announced that the government will pass a new law later this year to ban smoking in all public and commercial areas. The law is expected to take effect January 2007.

Representatives of restaurants, coffee houses, bars, discotheques and casinos have said such a ban would bring considerable economic loss.
We warn the government that a total ban is illusory. What we want is realistic legislation, said Martine Profichel, spokesperson for the French Association of Hotel Trade. Prohibitions have never attacked the roots of (health) problems.

Anti-tobacco activists on the other hand are urging the government to ensure a strict ban.

It would be absurd to accept exceptions precisely for those closed places where the risks from passive smoking are most intense, Yves Martinet, president of the French National Committee against Smoking told IPS.

Gérard Audureau, president of the association Rights of Non-Smokers also rejected the idea of exceptions. If the government decides to allow smoking in places such as discotheques and casinos, it would be a large gift to the tobacco industry, Audureau told IPS. Besides, such exceptions would be unconstitutional, and everyone could attack them before the State Council.

The State Council is the supreme legislative body in France. Unions representing workers at casinos and discotheques have threatened judicial action against employers if exceptions are permitted for such establishments.

The union Force Ouvrière (FO) has already lodged legal complaints against establishments that allow smoking.

France cannot exclude 12,000 workers of casinos and discotheques from an otherwise general protection against passive smoking, only to respect questionable commercial claims, the union said in a statement.

The French National Committee against Smoking says new medical evidence has confirmed the harmful effects of passive smoking. Strict bans on smoking in working places have considerably reduced the prevalence of lung cancer and respiratory diseases in some countries, Martinet told IPS.

He referred to the 16th world congress of oncologists held in Munich in early September where experts said that up to 7.5 million people in Europe are exposed to passive smoking at their work places.

Lung cancer, mostly caused by smoking, kills on estimate some 600,000 people every year in Europe. In France alone, official figures indicate that some 70,000 people die every year of diseases caused by tobacco.

According to a study presented in Munich by Maritta Jaakola, senior lecturer in respiratory and occupational medicine at the University of Birmingham, a total ban on smoking in European working places could reduce lung cancer cases by eight percent, and of asthma and chronic bronchitis by up to 30 percent.

Jaakola said new legislation (banning smoking from working places) would have a substantial impact on public health.

Debates on banning smoking in public places are also taking place in other European countries, especially in Germany, where smoking continues to be allowed at work places. The German government has been considering a new law to establish stricter regulations against smoking, but has so far failed to find consensus on the extent of the prohibition.

Strong opposition from the German Association of Hotels and Restaurants has blocked the passing of a law.

Germany ranks among the less protective countries in Europe against passive smoking, together with Russia, the Ukraine and Turkey, Yumiko Mochizuki-Kobayashi, director of the World Health Organisation s Tobacco Free Initiative, said in a recent interview to German newsweekly Der Spiegel.