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France Announces Plan to Go Smokefree

Parts excepted from the BBC

France will begin implementing a smokefree workplace law beginning next February, prime minister Dominique de Villepin announced in a television interview. Cafes, nightclubs, and restaurants will be given until January 2008 to comply, said Villepin.

"We started on the basis of a simple observation - two figures: 60,000 deaths a year in our country linked directly to tobacco consumption and 5,000 deaths linked to passive smoking. "That makes more than 13 deaths a day. It is an unacceptable reality in our country in terms of public health," he said.

Mr. de Villepin added the state would take charge of one-third of the costs of anti-smoking treatments, such as a patch. "That would represent the first month of treatment," he said.

Opinion polls in France show 70% of people support smokefree legislation, says the BBC's Valerie Jones in Paris.

Worldwide, the entire countries of Ireland, Italy, Scotland, England, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, Uganda, Malta, Uruguay, and Bhutan have enacted comprehensive smokefree workplace legislation, including smokefree restaurants and bars.