France introduces plain packaging of cigarettes

France plans to mandate plain packaging of cigarettes as part of an effort to reduce one of the highest rates of smoking among major European countries.

Plain packaging will be enforced as part of a law to be presented in coming months, Health Minister Marisol Touraine said today at a Cabinet meeting. The ministry doesn’t have a timetable yet for putting the plan into effect.

France is joining the U.K. and Ireland in moving toward banning distinctive and alluring tobacco packaging. With 31 percent of adults smoking daily, France has the third-highest rate of smoking in Western Europe behind Greece and Austria, according to the World Health Organization. That compares with 14 percent in the U.K. and 24 percent in Germany, the WHO says. (MTI)