We have just started the 9e edition of Tobacco-Free Month, an annual event to encourage people to stop smoking for 30 days, which multiplies by 5 the chances of succeeding in giving up permanently. Nearly 100,000 people attempt the adventure in France. This is a lot but at the same time the latest data shows that tobacco consumption is stagnating in the country. There are still nearly 15 million smokers there.
An effective solution would be to make use even more complex, for example with restrictions in public spaces. This is what the League against Cancer encourages with the creation of “Tobacco-Free Spaces”. Indre-et-Loire already has 76. We spoke about it with Marie Presset, director of the association's departmental committee.
To begin with, can we recall what a “Tobacco-Free Space” is?
It is a delimited space where tobacco consumption is prohibited. It is a project developed with prevention in mind: not necessarily to make people feel guilty, but rather to help them stop smoking. Often, these spaces are demarcated around schools, sports fields or play areas to allow as many people as possible to be made aware.
Why are we doing this?
Firstly, it is to reduce the initiative of young people to smoke because we have many who start early. To also talk about passive smoking. We don't do it often, but when mom or dad smokes near school while there are lots of children around, they breathe in harmful fumes filled with pollutants. When we leave school we are often outdoors in a pleasant environment. Why impose adult cigarette smoke on them? And the third approach is to limit the environmental impact because we know that the cigarette butts we find on the ground on the sidewalks are bad for the environment.
Does it work?
Yes because we support them with awareness and prevention. It's not fair: we put up a sign, we pass a municipal decree and the town hall prohibits consumption. Behind there is a whole educational discourse that we accompany with the educational teams where our prevention officer comes to explain the why and how. We are not in a repressive logic.
Do you do evaluations?
Yes. For example, we have the return of the commune of Ligueil which was a pioneer in Indre-et-Loire. Today they have an extension to one of their schools and, automatically, they have created a “Tobacco-Free Space”. The results are therefore very positive. There may be a fear of municipalities of offending their citizens, of imposing a restriction of freedom. Not at all: people are very understanding. When we explain that it is for the well-being of their children or the population it goes much better. Yes, the municipal police can issue fines, but our idea is more to explain why we are not allowed to smoke and, in most cases, it goes very well.
Can it really have an impact on general tobacco consumption?
We hope so. It's complicated to evaluate it, but tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable cancer in France, so it's important that we act from an early age and raise awareness among our children.
Do you feel they are receptive to these subjects?
We have the impression that they don't know much about the subject but, in the end, from primary school onwards they dare to say things that embarrass them. For example, mom or dad who smokes in the garden bothers them. In some cases they even support “Tobacco-Free Spaces” via schools or the municipal youth council. And behind it, they sometimes tell us that these actions allowed their parents to stop smoking, or that they reminded them that it was not good. The messages are there. It's important. If we can raise awareness among young people, we hope that we will see the cancer rate drop and consequently the mortality rate linked to tobacco decrease.
Your teams also organize awareness workshops in schools…
We talk about addictions in general. The idea is not to tell them that they should not smoke but to raise awareness through tools such as a game area around tobacco, which works a lot. By fun means, often it works much better. They are more receptive. With the puffs (single-use electronic cigarettes, soon to be banned, editor’s note) or things like that we see that young people are initiated very early, sometimes at the end of primary school. We have had cases of young people who started smoking at the age of 10-11. It's rare, but it exists. Of course, trying this kind of thing between friends can be fun, but behind them they are not aware of the full impact.
Photo: inauguration of a tobacco-free space in Langeais. Credit: City of Langeais
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