A large majority were chronic users of alcoholic beverages. This is not special to France, as shown in a Los Angeles survey. The health result of these habits is appalling, with a dramatic increase of throat and mouth cancer. Prof. Molimard desperately tried to find specific ways to help them quitting. He deems that it is hopeless as long as they remain in their social status.
Smoking is a behavior of the poor.
The lesser the income, the higher the prevalence. The usual explanation is that they smoke more because they are poor. The reverse may be true, that they are poor because they smoke. If two or three packs a day are smoked in his family, an French unskilled worker paid the equivalent of a month's salary in 1992. He may turn to lower price cigarettes, without filter, to hand-rolled ones.