France passes bill banning too-skinny models

France passed a bill on Friday that bans modeling agents and fashion houses from using models who are excessively thin, or face possible fines and even jail time, Reuters reports.

The move is part of President Francois Hollande's campaign against anorexia; the legislation also made condoning anorexia illegal, and requires any re-touching of photographs to include a message stating that fact. The legislation does not give a specific marker as to what will constitute "too skinny," rather saying that, "the activity of model is banned for any person whose Body Mass Index (BMI) is lower than levels proposed by health authorities and decreed by the ministers of health and labor."

Health experts estimate that some 30,000 to 40,000 people in France suffer from anorexia, many of them teenagers.

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