Smoking in France

Smoking in France was first restricted in the 1991 Évin law, which contains a variety of measures against alcoholism and tobacco consumption. A much stronger smoking ban was introduced on 1 February 2007, however, French smokers ignore the ban due to low enforcement.

History

The Évin law is named after Claude Évin, the minister who pushed for it. The law leaves certain important criteria on what is allowed or not with respect to smoking sections to executive-issued regulations, and it is those regulations that were altered in 2007.

Smoking is now banned in all public places (stations, museums, etc.); an exception exists for special smoking rooms fulfilling strict conditions. However, a special exemption was made for cafés and restaurants, clubs, casinos, bars, etc. until 1 January 2008, although the French government allowed a day of reflection on New Year's Day. Opinion polls suggest 70% of people support the ban.

Under the new regulations, smoking rooms are allowed, but are subjected to very strict conditions: they may occupy at most 20% of the total floor space of the establishment and their size may not be more than 35 m²; they need to be equipped with separate ventilation which replaces the full volume of air ten times per hour; the air pressure of the smoking room must constantly be lower than the pressure in the contiguous rooms; they must have doors that close automatically; no service can be provided in the smoking rooms; and cleaning and maintenance personnel may enter the room only one hour after it was last used for smoking[citation needed].

Previously, under the former implementation rules of the 1991 Évin law, restaurants, cafés etc. just had to provide smoking and non-smoking sections, which in practice were often not well separated. In larger establishments, smoking and non-smoking sections could be separate rooms, but often they were just areas within the same room.

A legal challenge against the new regulations was filed before the Conseil d'État in 2007, but was rejected.

(source:wikipedia)