France to quit making cigarettes as last factory prepares to close The last remaining factory making cigarettes in France is set to close by the end of 2023, the site’s owner told its employees this week.
Issued on: 01/10/2023 - 09:08
The Manufacture Corse des Tabacs (Macotab), on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, is the last to manufacture cigarettes in France since the closure of another in the centre of the country in 2016.
Around 30 employees work at the Corsican site, down from 143 in the early 1980s.
The factory makes cigarettes on behalf of industry giant Philip Morris, which recently signalled it was ending the contract.
Contraband packets have also cut into legal sales, according to the factory’s owner Seita, the former French state-owned tobacco monopoly that is now part of the British company Imperial Tobacco.
Seita had already closed France’s last tobacco processing factory in 2019, in the traditional growing region of the Dordogne in the south-west.
Some former factories in Marseille and Lyon have found new as cultural and exhibition spaces, or even a university.
Kicking the habit Efforts by authorities to curb smoking and its health hazards, not least by prohibiting puffing in restaurants and cafes and banning ads for cigarettes, have prompted sharp reductions in cigarette sales in recent years.
Smoking remains the main cause of avoidable deaths in France, according to Santé Publique France health agency, which estimates 75,000 tobacco deaths each year.
The bulk of European production these days is in Germany and Poland.
If we prohibited the sale of all addictive drugs with little benefit to society (no benefit is debatable) we’d have to ban coffee and alcohol too.
You think those 3 things are equal?
No, I think coffee is the least harmful.
But all three are addictive drugs and alcohol and tobacco are fairly comparable in harms to society.
The conversation went like this, let’s not ban addictive drugs because prohibition doesn’t work! No, let’s ban smoking because we only tried it with alcohol!
I threw coffee under the bus to make a point.
What was that point?
That if we banned drugs with little social benefit that would include coffee. I chose it because it, alcohol, and nicotine, all cause addiction or physical dependence.
I am not a regular coffee drinker, but I bet there are MANY people who think coffee/caffeine provides a benefit to society.
Granted, that may only be because people got addicted in the first place. But I figure there’s a reason coffee is often free in an office.
It’s a legal stimulant that’s less harmful and less addictive than nicotine.
Outside of these harms nicotine has many similar benefits to coffee.
Hence me saying no benefit (as the other poster asserted with nicotine) is debatable.
Yeah but beer tastes nice. Burning tar does not.
Taste is a matter of opinion.
personally, i find the taste of ciggies to be much much better than the taste of coffee
Have you tried them both at the same time? You need good coffee, obviously.
Pipe tobacco is one of the best smelling things ever.
Nobody mentioned addiction, which is irrelevant since smoking only has disadvantages. You created a strawman argument then you doubted the proven benefits of coffee and red wine, which is even part of the mediterranean diet. You argue in bad faith and you are also uneducated, make us all a favour and leave.
Nicotine has benefits and tobacco has antidepressants in it (MAOIs) beyond that.
As I said, little benefit. No benefit, as the comment I replied to had asserted, is debatable for all three of these drugs.
Yes, I added in addiction. Because the addictive nature of nicotine, coupled with the habit reinforcement of its ROA is what makes it (and alcohol) so dangerous.
Coffee isn’t great either. Tea is a much better way to get caffeine. Lower amounts of caffeine coupled with L-theanine make it much less disruptive to the organism.
As far as being uneducated, I’ve studied drugs my whole adult life and have taken college courses on addiction and drug abuse specifically. Caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol, were all covered by the course.
I also like to keep my caffeine drinks less disruptive to the organism. Am I right, fellow earth-born humans?
Citation needed. Coffee is understood to be generally good for you.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5696634/
ciggarettes were recommended by doctors for years too