Social disparities in tobacco use have long been documented in France, but until now there has been no information on occupational disparities in smoking. This report provides an overview of tobacco use among the French population, broken down by occupation and industry. This information is useful for epidemiologists interested in the links between work and the risk of developing a disease, particularly when that disease may be related to tobacco. It allows for the consideration of tobacco’s effect when interpreting differences in morbidity or mortality observed by occupation, thereby enabling a better assessment of the specific role of occupational factors.Estimates of prevalence and quantities consumed were therefore produced by the Occupational Health Department of the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS) based on data from the 2002-2003 Decennial Health Survey conducted by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee). This report thus presents, separately for men and women, the proportions of regular smokers, occasional smokers, and former smokers, as well as averages for daily and lifetime consumption, by occupation and sector of activity. Additionally, two examples of possible uses of these data are presented. The first is the calculation of indices of disparities in incidence or mortality by expected diseases resulting from disparities in smoking prevalence, by occupation or economic sector within the population. The second is a concrete example of how to interpret the results of a study analyzing mortality and causes of death by economic sector in France (the Cosmop study). It is planned to reproduce this type of analysis for other periods to account for changes in these data. (R.A.)