[Intl-tobacco] French price hikes help to cut number of smokers by 1.8 million:

[Robert Weissman]

French price hikes help to cut number of smokers by 1.8 million: study
 AFP
February 1, 2004

Paris - The number of smokers in France has dropped by nearly two million
over the past five years because of rising awareness of the health risks and
steep price rises imposed by the government, a study showed. Between 1999
and 2003, the proportion of smokers has gone from 34.5 percent of France's
60-million strong population to 30.4 percent, a decline of 1.8 million
smokers to 13.5 million, the survey by the Institute for Prevention and
Health Education (INPES) and the IPSOS statistics institute found.

It interviewed 3,000 people aged 15 to 75 across the country. Last year saw
a large proportion of French people -- 14 percent -- giving up
cigarettes as
the government ratcheted up the price of packets to around five euros (six
dollars). Overall, the ex-smokers said prices had become their second
most-important reason for kicking the habit, after that of wanting to take
better care of their health.

In addition, the survey found that a third of the smokers polled planned
to
give up in the coming months. The INPES noted that women and young people
were the ones most likely to stop smoking, saying that tobacco consumption
for those two categories had dropped 18 percent.