Remember, 30 years ago, it was still possible to smoke in restaurants, businesses, universities, or even television sets! An era that ended on November 1, 1992 : date of entry into force of the Evin law
in France, promulgated on January 10, 1991. It contained several sections against alcoholism and smoking : in particular the prohibition of smoke in certain closed collective places and the organization of non-smoking areas, the prohibition of direct or indirect advertising of tobacco and alcohol, or the exclusion of the price index (i.e. the possibility of increasing the price of tobacco) .
It was a former member of Loire-Atlantique, Claude Évin, who carried this law in 1991, when he was Minister of Health. Between assimilations and backtrackingit takes stock, three decades after its entry into force.
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KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP
The ban on smoking in enclosed public spaces, a similar measure
Today, Claude Évin is satisfied with respect for the law in the fight against smoking. “Society has changed in its behavior”, describes the former minister who remembers the hostility of some, at the time of implementation. In particular on the part of some members of employers, who feared “Clashes between smokers and non-smokers”.
Finding in 2022: it is accepted. “It passed in the behavior”, adds the Minister of Health who welcomes this, “When you go to a restaurant, you can only appreciate not being bothered by cigarette smoke, even when you are a smoker.”
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With the Évin law enacted 30 years ago, smoking was therefore prohibited in schools or at work for example, but there were smoking areas. It’s onlyin 2007with the application of a new decree, that cigarettes have completely disappeared in public places and transportation, indoors.
The return of alcohol advertisements
On the other hand, on the alcohol component, according to Claude Évin, several blows were struck at his law concerning the advertising regulations
.
The tobacco component in the law was not called into question, the alcohol component was.
Claude Évin recalls that he had banned all displays of alcohol advertisements, except in production sites. “Today, displays in favor of alcohol are everywhere on our walls”he points out.
This is due to various changes in the text, also concerning the way of presenting alcohol-related products, “with industrialists wishing to present them permanently from an attractive angle.” For him, “we cannot present these products in a banal way”, but he deplores it: this sensitive subject will be difficult to reintegrate into legislative debates.
The former minister recalls that it is necessary to combine various measures to reduce the consumption of alcohol or tobacco, he calls for permanent vigilance in the face of these images that can enhance these products.
Between 1990 and 2018, according to Santé Public France, mortality from lung cancer decreased by 1.2% per year in men, but increased by 3.5% per year in women.