Agence France Presse

Paris, January 4

Smoking is the main cause of avoidable death in France, killing around 66,000 people each year, the health ministry said yesterday.

"On average, one regular smoker in every two dies prematurely from his or her smoking habits... Half of those who die are between 35 and 69 years old," the ministry continued in a statement issued jointly with the National Institute of Health Education and Prevention (INPES).

Smoking causes a third of all cancers in France, according to the statement, which was

posted on an internet site — www.jarreteetvous.org — set up by the ministry and the INPES as part of a national stop-smoking campaign launched in March 2003.

Lung cancer is a particular danger among smokers and those forced to inhale their noxious fumes, including children. In France, 90 per cent of all lung cancers are caused by actually smoking and a further five percent by passive smoking, the statement stressed.