Paris Outlaw Smoking In Playgrounds

Smokers will no longer be allowed to spark up in the playgrounds of one Paris park after a trial smoking ban was introduced for a year.

The initiative, which is likely to now be extended to other outdoor public spaces, was introduced over the weekend as part of an official campaign cut smoking deaths in France.

Smoking is already technically banned in all inside public places in France, including cafes, restaurants, stations and museums.

Stay away from those kiddies! Paris has banned smoking inside the playgrounds of one of its city parks, a move which is expected to be the first step towards a more widespread ban on smoking in public

But terraces and other places outdoors are not included in the ban, because the chances of smokers harming those sitting around them are considered minuscule.

Now the three playgrounds in the Parc de Montsouris, southern Paris, are off limits to smokers for the next 12 months. Paris deputy mayor Pénélope Komitès said breaches would be punished with a yet to be introduced system of formal warnings and fines.

'For now, we're focussing more on persuading people than on punishing them,' she was quoted as saying by the Daily Telegraph.

After the trial, the city authorities 'will determine whether the measure should be made permanent and extended to other Paris parks,' Ms Komitès said.

The decision to begin the process of banning smoking in the public parks of Paris comes after the mayor of UK capital London, a rival metropolis which competes with Paris in standards wealth, culture and opportunity, called similar proposals 'bossy and nannying'.