First French city bans smoking in public parks
Strasbourg outlaws lighting up in all its public parks following successful trial
Smokers in the city of Strasbourg are becoming an increasingly rare sight, after authorities in banned lighting up in all public parks from this week.
The decision comes after a trial in La Citadelle park in the city, which has been smoke-free since December. Following the trial, a survey carried out by city officials found that 71% of non-smokers and 57% of smokers were in favour of the ban being extended to all parks in the city.
The capital of the Grand-Est region is the first large city in France to implement such a ban, which came into effect on Monday.
Between now and January 1, 2019, health officials will monitor levels of smoking in the city's parks, and will talk to anyone caught with a lit cigarette in their hands. "We know that these brief interventions of a few minutes do have an effect," deputy mayor in charge of health issues Alexandre Feltz told francetvinfo.
From January 1 next year, anyone caught smoking or throwing a cigarette butt in a park will face a €68 fine.
The first fines will be addressed as from 1 January 2019: 68 euros for those who smoke or throw their cigarette butts in a park. Alexandre Feltz speaks of a "health emergency. It is time for France to have a real anti-smoking policy. The constraints will lead people to question the stop."
Mr Feltz used the announcement to call for "political courage" to drastically reduce the number of smokers. "We can't stay at that 26-27% of smokers while other countries that really had this will are now at 15%," he said.
