Yannick Neuder, LR deputy for Isère and former Minister of Health, announced that he was tabling a bill to tax tobacco manufacturers so that they “finally take their part” in the fires sweeping across French territory.
“I am tabling a bill so that the tobacco manufacturers, those who produce these butts by the billions, finally take their share with a contribution to the turnover,” posted the MP, former Minister of Health (2024-2025) in the government of François Bayrou, on the social network
Since the start of the year, forest fires have covered around 120,000 hectares in France.
“A cigarette butt thrown out of a car window, and a forest goes up in smoke,” he continues.
This law “will make it possible to create and supplement a fund for reforestation and financing of our civil security forces” hopes Mr. Neuder.
According to him, “a cigarette butt is enough to start a fire when the air is dry” and “17% of smokers admit to throwing them out the window of their vehicle.”
“23 billion cigarettes are sold each year in France. So many filters which end up in our streets, our rivers, our forests, and which take more than ten years to disappear,” concludes the elected official.
In a press release, the tobacco company Philip Morris France, market leader, said it regrets and condemns “the irresponsible behavior at the origin of certain fires”, but believes that “imposing a new tax on manufacturers will not change the individual behavior at the origin of these situations”.
Expressing his “solidarity” with those affected by the fires, he recalled that “tobacco manufacturers already finance an eco-organization, to the tune of nearly 80 million euros per year, to collect cigarette butts and raise consumer awareness.”
