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SMOKING

‘Smoking a bigger danger to French pupils than terrorism’

A French health expert has launched legal proceedings against a school for allowing children to smoke on school grounds, on the premise it is safer than outside the gates because of the terror threat.

Published: 29 March 2016 13:27 CEST
'Smoking a bigger danger to French pupils than terrorism'
Photo: AFP
France's national state of emergency has put a tough choice in front of headmasters across the country. 
 
Should pupils continue to be forced outside school grounds to smoke cigarettes – leaving them as potential terror targets on the streets – or should they be allowed to smoke on school grounds, even though it's against the law and not forgetting it's bad for their health.
 
A lung specialist has taken action on the matter, lodging an official complaint against the Saint-Exupery high school in Lyon for allowing pupils to smoke on school grounds.
 
“Supposedly it's because of the state of emergency,” specialist Corinne Depagne told the RTL channel on Tuesday. 
 
“It keeps our children from being killed outside high schools and instead allows them to be killed inside. It's unbelievable,” she said. 
 
In February, unions called for pupils to be allowed back in the courtyard to smoke, and many schools have already given the go ahead.
 
Michel Richard from the SNPDEN school administrators union was among those calling for the law to be ignored. 
 
“We are always going to fight against smoking, but when it comes to the difference between a Kalashnikov and a cigarette, the risk just isn't the same,” Richard told Le Figaro newspaper last month. 
 
The union has also looked into the possibility of introducing “smoking areas” inside the school grounds, reported Le Parisien. 
 
It's no surprise that the issue is divisive, with smoking in public a hot potato in France for years.
 
Officially, a smoking ban was rolled out in early 2007, which saw a prohibition in all workplaces, hospitals, schools and shops, and which was rolled out to bars, restaurants and cafes the year after. The move was part of the French government's response to a worrying increase in cigarette consumption.
 
Students caught smoking at school can face fines of up to €450, while schools can be slapped with fines of up to €750. 
 
And smoking is on the rise among teenagers according to a 2015 report from the French Observatory for Drugs and Addiction (OFDT), which found that 33 percent of boys aged 17 smoke daily – up from 32.7 percent in 2011.
 
Girls aged 17 saw a larger increase, with 31.9 percent smoking daily compared to 30.2 percent in the same study three years earlier.

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HEALTH

How Spain could stamp out smoking

A fifth of Spain's population smokes on a daily basis. With such high numbers, here's how the country's pulmonologists propose to get smokers to quit.

Published: 5 November 2021 17:52 CET
Spain plans to get people to quit smoking
How Spain plans to get people to stop smoking. Photo: Khalil MAZRAAWI / AFP

For many outsiders, Spain is a nation of smokers. 

The stats from Spain’s Ministry of Health show that 23.3 percent of men smoke every day in Spain, compared with 16.4 percent of women.

For both males and females, the highest number of smokers are aged between 25 and 34, meaning that it’s the younger population who are smoking slightly more than the older generations. 

Spain’s pulmonologists are now pushing for the country’s tobacco laws to be tightened, claiming that reform is needed after the last legislation was approved a decade ago.

READ ALSO: Spain warns against smoking and vaping in public to avoid Covid infections

Why is smoking such a problem in Spain and what is being done about it?

The latest stats from the Spanish Ministry of Health show that lung cancer, often caused by smoking, is the third most frequently diagnosed cancer in Spain, with 29,549 cases diagnosed so far in 2021.

Given these high figures Spain’s Spanish Society of Pulmonology and Thoracic Surgery (SEPAR) has proposed five measures to help get people to stop smoking.

SEPAR points out that every time anti-smoking legislation is reformed and things for smokers made more difficult, the prevalence of smoking decreases.  

Smoking on terraces was banned in some regions during the pandemic. Photo: CRISTINA QUICLER / AFP
  • Price of tobacco to rise in 2022

The first point on their list is to raise the price of tobacco, which must cover all forms, from cigarettes to cigars, through to rolling tobacco, and electronic cigarettes.  

This first measure may soon become a reality as the Spanish government has already predicted that the price of tobacco will rise in 2022, after several years of stagnation.  

It is expected that tobacco will be responsible for almost a third of all special taxes received in 2022, equating to €21.8 billion.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “cheap tobacco” in Spain guarantees “a percentage of smokers above 30 percent”.

In Spain, the price of a pack of tobacco is around €5, which is much cheaper than in other countries. In Australia for example, a pack of tobacco costs around €22, and in the United Kingdom and France, each pack of tobacco costs around €12.4 and €10.5, respectively.

According to Dr. Carlos A. Jiménez Ruiz, pulmonologist and president of the society, the current anti-smoking law has “some deficiencies” that need to be addressed in order to develop legislation that is more effective and efficient, especially with regard to the prevention of tobacco consumption in young people, but also in helping smokers to stop smoking and in protecting the health of non-smokers. 

READ ALSO – Maps: Which beaches in Spain have banned smoking?

Besides increasing the cost of tobacco SEPAR proposes four other measures to get Spain to quit smoking. These include:

  • Banning the consumption of tobacco in public spaces, even outdoors
    During the pandemic, several regions approved a regulation to prohibit smoking on terraces. SEPAR proposes that smoking be prohibited not only in spaces such as terraces but also in sports stadiums, beaches, parks and bullrings, and that fines should be imposed for those who do not comply.

  • Establish generic packaging
    SEPAR also wants Spain to introduce generic packaging, which means no logos and images of the tobacco companies. This measure has also proven to lower the sales of tobacco in countries where it has been implemented, such as Australia and New Zealand. According to the latest statistics from the Australian National Drug Strategy Household Survey around 11.6 percent of adults in Australia smoke daily. 

  • The regulation of other smoking devices
    Despite the fact that all products that burn tobacco such as cigarettes are already regulated, SEPAR believes that it is also necessary to regulate the sale, consumption and advertising of electronic cigarettes. This is because e-cigarettes have become particularly popular among young people. 

  • Promote help for those seeking to quit smoking
    The last proposal is the creation and development of special units in public health departments to help people to stop smoking and to put more funds towards these programmes. 

How does Spain compare with other European countries when it comes to smoking?

According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), while Spain does have a high number of smokers there are still several European countries that have more. The European countries with the highest number of smokers are Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary.

The latest European survey from 2020 shows that 42 percent of Greeks claim to be smokers, which is only slightly above Spain. 

On the other side, the European countries with the lowest number of smokers are mainly Nordic countries, such as Sweden, Finland, Iceland and Norway.

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