Annals of Oncology Advance Access originally published online on November 7, 2005
Annals of Oncology 2006 17(2):346-347; doi:10.1093/annonc/mdj070
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© 2005 European Society for Medical Oncology
Effects of new smoking regulations in Italy
1 Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche ‘Mario Negri’, Milan, Italy; 2 Dipartimento del Farmaco, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy; 3 Istituto DOXA, Gallup International Association, Milan, Italy; 4 Istituto di Statistica Medica e Biometria, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
* Correspondence to: Dr S. Gallus, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche ‘Mario Negri’, Via Eritrea 62, 20157 Milan, Italy. Tel: +39-02-39-014-526; Fax: +39-02-33-200-231; E-mail: gallus{at}marionegri.it
Background: From 10 January 2005 the Italian government banned smoking in all indoor public places. We conducted a population-based survey to provide information on attitudes towards smoking regulation and to disentangle the impact of the smoking ban on tobacco consumption.
Patients and methods: We considered data from a survey on smoking, based on 3114 subjects aged 15 or over, representative of the general adult Italian population in terms of age, sex, geographic area and socioeconomic status.
Results: Once smoke-free policies were introduced, support for them in the public opinion tended to increase. In Italy, smoke-free policies accounted for around 8% decrease in cigarette consumption in the short run. Moreover, tobacco bans were almost universally accepted, and the smoke-free legislation did not seem to unfavourably affect the business of restaurants or cafes.
Conclusions: The results of our study on the first extensive smoking ban in a large country show the advantages of smoke-free legislations, which may have major public health implications.
Key words: Italy, population survey, smoking bans, tobacco smoking, workplace smoking
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