A radical change of policy is underway in the home of smoke-filled cafes and pungent Gauloises cigarettes: The French government has launched the most aggressive anti-smoking campaign since tobacco was introduced here centuries ago.
Officials are pressuring the movie industry to stop glorifying smokers and are cracking down on cigarette sales to minors and smoking in public places. The government is also steeply raising cigarette taxes -- one hike came at the start of the year, while another is planned for Monday and a third in January.
"This is a war against smoking, and we're attacking from all angles," said Helene Monard, a spokeswoman for the Health Ministry's anti-smoking division. "We've never had a campaign this strong. Never."
France has long been a smoker's paradise, where lighting up is considered sophisticated and chic. Some 20 million French smoke -- over a third of the population -- as do 50 percent of youths aged 15-24, the highest rate in the EU.
The country, however, is slowly waking up to the ugly side of its tobacco habit: Lung cancer was the leading cause of death in people under 65 last year, and smoking-related illnesses claimed 66,000 lives.
If not for health reasons, many smokers are increasingly weighing the cost to their wallets. The three tax hikes in 12 months will make France one of the most expensive places on the continent to smoke.
But the French anti-smoking campaign is meeting some pockets of resistance.
Rising prices have spawned a black market, with French crossing into Spain and Italy for cheaper smokes; tobacco vendors have staged angry protests in futile efforts to halt the price increases and they plan another on Monday.
The principal of a high school near Paris tried recently to enforce a long-flouted ban against smoking on school grounds -- and hundreds of students went on strike.
But there are also signs of success: Cigarette sales fell an unprecedented 8.2 percent in the first eight months of the year.
While it's too early to predict if France's passion for smoking will fade, the government has made a clear turnaround in policy.
For years, the country's lucrative tobacco industry was state-owned, and cracking down on smoking meant cutting into government revenue. But Seita -- the maker of Gauloises -- was privatized in 1995 before forming the Franco-Spanish group Altadis.
Health costs associated with smoking have become a growing burden. The state healthcare system has a record deficit of US$12.8 billion this year, partly from the costs of cancer treatment.
Health Minister Jean-Francois Mattei hopes cigarette-tax increases, part of a nationwide plan to fight cancer, will generate US$938 million in 2004 tax revenues to help plug the health deficit.
Under a law passed this summer, minors under 16 can no longer buy tobacco products -- the first such age limit ever imposed in France. Vendors face fines for violations.
From November, cheap, half-sized packs of cigarettes popular with teenagers will no longer be sold. Authorities are enforcing an openly violated ban on smoking in public places such as hospitals, schools, airports and train stations.
There are limits to the campaign, however. No New York-style bans against smoking in French restaurants and bars are planned, for example.
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