France recently banned single-use vapes and nicotine pouches as part of its plan to foster a tobacco-free generation. But, as the world marks the annual World No Tobacco Day on Saturday, a group of public health advocates and MPs want to go further – by introducing a generational tobacco ban similar to the UK's.
Smoking is no longer as fashionable in France as it was in the days of Serge Gainsbourg chain-smoking Gitanes on TV. Yet it remains the country's leading cause of preventable death, killing around 75,000 people a year.
It is also linked to heart disease, strokes, type 2 diabetes, asthma, dementia and fertility issues.
Over the past 30 years, France has cracked down on smoking – banning advertising of tobacco products in 1991, smoking in public places in 2007 and sales to under-18s in 2009, and introducing plain packaging in 2017.
These efforts have paid off. According to the French Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (OFDT), the number of regular smokers fell from 40 percent of adults in the mid-2010s to 23 percent in 2023 – although this is still above the EU average.
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Only 16 percent of 17-year-olds say they now smoke daily, down from 25 percent in 2017.
Vaping, however, is on the rise, especially among teens, with around 6 percent using e-cigarettes daily.
The recent bans on single-use vapes – known as "puffs" – and nicotine pouches are part of France's National Tobacco Control Plan for 2023-2027, which aims to reduce the adult smoking population to 20 percent by 2027, and teen smokers to 10 percent by 2028.
The ultimate goal: a tobacco-free generation by 2032, with only 5 percent of under-18s smoking.
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Severing the link
The best way to reach that goal is to prevent young people from starting smoking, says Professsor Loic Josseran, head of the Alliance Against Tobacco (ACT).
"We know that 90 percent of smokers begin under the age of 18," he said. "The ban on sales to minors simply isn't enforced, there are no penalties and no controls."
Losseren is calling for a UK-style generational tobacco ban, which would prohibit sales of tobacco products to anyone born after 1 January, 2009 – effectively raising the smoking age by one year each year until it applies to the whole population.
The law, passed by the UK Parliament in March, is expected to take effect in January 2027.
Earlier this week, ACT and France's public health agency (SPF) met with MPs to begin working on a similar initiative.
Their proposal would make it illegal to sell tobacco – including cigarettes, cigarillos and rolling tobacco – to anyone born in 2014 or later, throughout their lives.
"This measure, which may seem radical, is in fact an extension of the ban on sales to minors," Josseren argues.
ACT says 7 out of 10 French people support the idea of a tobacco-free generation.
It aims to place youngsters in a non-smoking, non-consuming environment – severing contact with tobacco.
"Since they won't have started smoking, they won't want to buy tobacco... We're not depriving them of anything, we're just offering them better health." He stressed that the measure targets sales, not consumption, and adult smokers will still be able to buy and consume tobacco.
New Zealand was the first country to pass such a law in 2022, although it was scrapped by a subsequent coalition government in February 2024 to help fund tax cuts.
Denmark, Malaysia and the American state of Nevada are also debating introducing similar legislation.
'Political courage'
The UK law, initially proposed by the then-Conservative government and picked up by its Labour successor, earned broad cross-party backing, despite a few MPs on the right branding it an attack on personal freedom.
In France, however, Josseran says gaining support "will need real political courage".
So far, two MPs – Nicolas Thierry from the Greens and Michel Lauzzana from the centre-right Ensemble coalition – support the idea. Both were involved in the recent ban on puffs.
But many remain hesitant. "A few are interested, but many are more concerned with the tobacco industry's arguments," Josseren says, noting that every MP has tobacconists in their constituency. "They fear they'll say: 'Be careful, if you bother me I'll tell everyone not to vote for you'."
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He acknowledges that a generational tobacco ban would eventually force tobacconists out of business.
Meanwhile, he claims the industry is lobbying hard, pouring "several million euros into the National Assembly each year" to block public health laws.
The industry is also diversifying. "We're seeing the creation of a nicotine market in which young people can choose between nicotine gum, beads, cigarettes, heated tobacco, chicha, vape..."
He added: "It took us two years to ban puffs and already manufacturers are marketing new ways of delivering nicotine. That's why we need an umbrella law to prevent all these new forms coming on to the market."
Environmental focus
The tobacco industry defends its role in the French economy, citing job creation and tax revenues. Seventy-five percent of the price of a packet of cigarettes is tax – an important source of income for the government, at a time when the state coffers are empty.
Yet the OFDT says the financial equation weighs heavily against the state. While tobacco brings in around €13 billion per year, healthcare costs and losses in productivity due to early death or illness amount to €20 billion.
The total cost of tobacco to French society in 2019 was estimated at €156 billion, including environmental damage and social impact.
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Josseren calls it an "environmental horror" – involving deforestation, land-grabbing, child labour and pesticide use.
"It's an industry that plunders and crushes life everywhere it goes," he says. "The only thing it grows is profits."
Anti-smoking campaigns now increasingly focus on tobacco's environmental footprint, which resonates more with young people than health warnings.
"Saying that smoking isn't good, that we're going to die from smoking in 40 years' time, doesn't interest young people. I can't blame them," he said.
"We have to explain that the environment is the real lever – protecting the environment, respecting others. That can lead them to turn away from these products. That's our approach."
