“We prefer to treat tobacco pathologies, rather than investing massively in prevention,” regrets Yves Bur

The president of the Alliance Against Tobacco calls for increased prevention and the establishment of a single price for cigarette packets in Europe.

“We prefer to treat tobacco pathologies rather than investing massively in prevention”, regrets Yves Bur, former MP who introduced the law banning smoking in public places and president of the Alliance Against Tobacco. He was the guest of France Bleu Alsace on Friday May 31 on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day.

The United Kingdom plans to ban tobacco consumption for the generation born from 2009. “The English have always been clearly better than us in terms of preventionreacts Yves Bur. Over the last 20 years, smoking has fallen by 53% in Great Britain and only 16% in France. According to the former MP, the English have a “true culture of prevention”. “We prefer to provide treatment to treat tobacco pathologies, rather than investing massively in prevention. The English start from the principle that the best method to quit smoking is to never start. Otherwise, addiction to tobacco nicotine sets in and it’s a hard drug, we must not forget that,” recalls Yves Bur.

“We are the bad students in terms of smoking because prevention is perhaps too neglected.”

Yves Bur, president of the Alliance Against Tobacco

at France Bleu Alsace

Preventing a generation from smoking “It can be positive for people who are smokers. They will perhaps realize that they should not smoke”, estimates the president of the Alliance Against Tobacco. Thus, increasing the price of a packet of cigarettes remains one of the most effective ways to fight against smoking, thinks Yves Bur: “The price of a pack of cigarettes is already very high here, 12.50 euros on average, but in other Anglo-Saxon countries like New Zealand and Australia, it is almost 20 euros per pack. have another approach that is much more rigorous, serious and demanding than us”.

But at the same time we must fight against purchases of cigarettes on the other side of the border. Yves Bur offers a unique price in Europe. “To further reduce smoking, Europe would also need to take up this issue. The English are no longer there, we can touch on taxation because the English refused to allow us to touch tobacco taxation at the level European”, specifies the former MP. He wishes “let France be a driving force in saying : in Europe we practice a single price which avoids cross-border purchases, which makes it possible to give more vigor to prevention policies”.

Finally, in addition to the age controls for which Yves Bur requests “a civic effort on the part of the tobacconist to check identity cards and ask that the young person prove their age to buy tobacco”he also pleads for “denormalize the image of tobacco, particularly in social networks and films”. “Let’s not be naive, it’s the tobacco companies who pay directors to introduce a little cigarette into films”he concludes.