• Montpellier inaugurates this Tuesday the first smoke-free spaces in the city, in a park.
  • In France, at the initiative of the League against cancer, tobacco is banned in 5,162 spaces, near schools, parks, sports venues or beaches.
  • "These measures are perceived in a very favorable way, explains the town hall of Prades-le-Lez, precursor in the Hérault. Smokers do not want children to repeat their addiction. »

At 16 p.m. on Tuesday, Montpellier will inaugurate its first tobacco-free space. A park, in the Celleneuve district. In total, ten spaces will be sanctuarized in the city. Twenty more are expected to follow in the coming months. "A symbol, it marks and it can change the image that children have of tobacco, explained, during the presentation of the future device, Élodie Brun Mandon, municipal councillor in charge of health and the fight against addictions. Moving to a place where no one smokes is a form of awareness. It inspires good practices and shows children that it may be better to live tobacco-free. »

The seventh largest city in France is following in the footsteps of a national approach, led for about ten years by the League against cancer, which awards a label to the cities involved. In total, the municipal decrees concern 5,162 spaces in 66 departments in France.

30 billion cigarette butts collected in cities every year in France

These smoke-free places are most often located near schools, parks, children's playgrounds, health facilities or sports halls. But also some beaches, such as Leucate in the Aude. "The goal is to denormalize tobacco use. Seeing fewer and fewer people smoking, makes people want to start less and less, "says Valentine Sarrut, prevention officer at the Hérault committee of the League against cancer.

A public health approach but also an environmental and economic one. The cost of collecting cigarette butts is estimated at 38 euros per inhabitant per year. Every year, nearly 30 billion cigarette butts are thrown into the streets of France including 350 tons just for Paris.

The League for a National Decree

In the Hérault, Saint-Clément de Rivière was the first to issue a municipal decree to this effect. Followed in 2019 by Prades-le-Lez, a small town in the metropolis of Montpellier, where five places were banned. "These measures have been received very positively. People understand very well the importance of not smoking in places frequented by children, "says one at the town hall. "Beyond the sanction, we had planned to carry out educational actions with municipal council of children, extracurricular children and associations. But the Covid-19 pandemic and the first lockdown unfortunately stopped everything."

If a decree already exists to prohibit the consumption of tobacco on playgrounds, the League against cancer wants to go further. She is campaigning for the publication of a decree generalizing smoke-free spaces around schools, so that the approach is no longer punctual and left to the discretion of municipal councils, but applies to all. "Smokers know about their addiction to cigarettes and some suffer from it. They don't want their children to behave in the same way," concludes Valentine Sarrut.

  • Society
  • Tobacco
  • Montpellier
  • Hérault
  • Occitania
  • Languedoc-Roussillon