The League Against Cancer has asked the municipalities to join the Espace sans tabac label and we have decided to join this public health dynamic. With us, this takes the form of four spaces located around the Catherine-Descartes and Saint-Joseph schools, the sports hall of the Roger-Michel complex and the Ar-Goët hall
, notes Corinne Pesty, municipal councilor in charge of school affairs, childhood, youth, community life and sports. An agreement was recently signed with the Morbihan committee of the League against cancer and the municipality ofElven (Morbihan).
Denormalize tobacco
The non-smoking areas, established by decree of the mayor, are therefore located in areas mainly welcoming a young or family public, in particular the entrances and exits of schools and sports halls. They will be materialized by Space without tobacco panels for the start of the school year. I would like to point out that smokers will still be able to smoke around the stadiums. Our idea is to denormalize tobacco among children. Reducing young people’s initiation to smoking, encouraging smoking cessation, eliminating exposure to passive smoking, especially among children, promoting health and healthy spaces, preserving the environment with fewer cigarette butts.
Prevention
The municipality is in prevention and not in repression. We are not in the deprivation of freedom but just in the idea of protecting the health of our young people. We are absolutely not in the repression. We don’t want stigma or discrimination. The operation is intended to be educational.
The device is rather well received by the Elvinois. During our general assembly, the badminton players reacted quite well. Smokers can go under the college car park, less exposed for young people. The members understood the message and the challenge very well,”
explains Audrey Chrétien, from the Flame 56 badminton club, the only sports association present at the information meeting on Saturday morning.
The municipality had met, upstream, the associations of parents of pupils of the two schools, these seem to adhere well to the project. They are a little worried about the tensions that this can cause between smokers and non-smokers. We are in dialogue and, if necessary, we are there to answer questions as well as the municipal police.
If the colleges are not concerned by these spaces, it is because they depend on the Department. As far as playgrounds are concerned, the law already obliges people not to smoke.
