Sweeping restrictions on tobacco use in public places are set to come into force in France from 1 July 2025, in a move designed to protect children from exposure to the habit.
The ban covers beaches and lakesides, parks and gardens, sports grounds and pools, bus and public transport stops, libraries and areas near children’s centres, schools, and training facilities, putting young people’s “right to breathe fresh air” above the public’s freedom to smoke. Flouting the ban could cost rule-breakers up to €135.
In a joint press release from the French Ministry of Work, Health, Solidarity and Families and the Ministry of Health and Access to Care, smoking is denounced as a public health threat that kills over 200 people every day and costs the country €150 billion per year. The addiction therefore needs to be “denormalised” and made less attractive, the ministries said.
#JournéeMondialeSansTabac | 🚭 La ministre @CaVautrin a annoncé de nouvelles mesures pour lutter contre le tabac, première cause de mortalité évitable en France.
— Ministère de la Santé et de l'Accès aux soins (@Sante_Gouv) May 31, 2025
🎯 Objectifs :
✅ Protéger les lieux de sociabilité fréquentés notamment par les jeunes et les enfants.
✅… pic.twitter.com/nKbiTHbjaL
Fewer smokers than ever
Smoking inside public buildings was banned in 2007 in France and outlawed in cafés and restaurants in 2008 but many establishments failed to install proper separations between smoking and non-smoking areas and it has taken a long time for anti-smoking measures to be taken seriously.
To date, over 7,000 smoke-free places have been created nationally. Fewer people than ever now smoke in France and sales of tobacco products fell by 11.5% in 2024. It’s a huge turnaround in a nation historically associated with the image of cafés filled with Gauloise-smoking philosophers and where, for a long time, concerns were shrugged off and the notion that “we all have to die of something” reigned.
The new policy is not only about reducing smoking and passive smoking but also about cutting pollution in a territory heaving under the weight of between 20,000 to 25,000 tonnes of cigarette butts thrown onto the streets annually.
Vaping to be targeted too
Single-use vapes, another source of pollution, were banned in France in February 2025. Going further, the press release said that within the next year, authorities will work with the scientific community to establish limits on nicotine content in tobacco and vaping products to make them less addictive, as well as tightening rules on vape flavours imitating products such as sweets and candy floss, to make them less appealing to the youth segment.
“Tobacco is a poison that kills, costs, and pollutes,” Minister Catherine Vautrin said in a statement, arguing that “above all, it targets our young people.” Although she acknowledged the country is “on the right path”, her ambition and “absolutely priority” remains “a tobacco-free generation,” she said.
