French MPs approve ban on skinny models

French MPs have backed a law that will ban the use of fashion models deemed to be excessively thin.

Under this new law, models will have to show they have a Body Mass Index (BMI) over a stipulated level, and modelling agents that break the rules will face fines and up to six months in prison.

The lower house of parliament also passed a separate measure making it illegal to condone anorexia, a move targeting internet sites that encourage dangerous weight loss. An estimated 40,000 people suffer from anorexia in France with nine out of 10 of these being women and girls.

The new law on fashion models is part of a wider Health Bill and it won a majority vote in the National Assembly lower house of parliament on Friday and must now be approved by the Senate.

"Anyone whose body mass index... is below a certain level will not be able to work as a catwalk model," it said.

Olivier Veran, the Socialist MP who proposed the bill told French news channel BFMTV that the move would allow agencies to be "severely punished" if they forced models to undergo excessive weight loss, endangering their health. He added that there would be regular checks to enforce the rule.

The deputy previously said models would have to present a medical certificate showing a BMI - the ratio of height to weight - of at least 18 before being hired for a job.

The average BMI for a woman in France is said to be that of 23.2 and doctors say a normal BMI for adults is between 18.5 and 24.9. However some critics say the measure is not the best way of judging a healthy weight.

The BBC reports that the National Union of Modelling Agencies has complained that the ban would affect the competitiveness of French modelling, but doctors and women's rights groups have long campaigned against the image they say is too often put out by the fashion industry of young women of an unnatural and unhealthy thinness.

The news agency also referred to the death of Isabelle Caro, an anorexic 28-year-old former French model in 2007. Caro had posed for a photographic campaign to raise awareness about the illness.