The French government has announced new laws designed to reduce the number of cigarette smokers in the country.
Smoking is the principal cause of death in France. Around 73,000 people die each year after contracting tobacco-related conditions.
The health minister reported that France has some 13 million smokers out of a population of 66 million - and the "number of smokers is growing, especially among young people."
She said that the number of deaths caused by smoking was “the equivalent of a plane crash every day with 200 people on board."
The new regulations require plain packaging with large health warnings as well as banning the practice in children’s play areas in public parks and in vehicles transporting children under 12.
EU laws already force tobacco firms to cover 65% of the packaging with health warnings, but Health Minister Ms Touraine said they must now be "the same shape, same size, same colour, same typeset" if the ban gets National Assembly approval.
France appears to be following the model set out by Australia in 2012. All cigarettes sold there had to be in identical brown packets covered mostly with graphic health warnings. At the same time, Australia hiked up the tax, forcing up prices.
Experts say smoking decreased as a result.
Tobacco companies, however, are not so convinced, disputing the results. A spokesperson for an Imperial Tobacco subsidiary called the initiative “completely incomprehensible”.
"It's based on the Australian experience which, more than a failure, was a complete fiasco," Celine Audibert said.
