From public places to the presence of minors: here is the incoming squeeze against smoking, including e-cigarettes
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The consumption of electronic cigarettes is also increasing in Italy, a figure that has been growing “slowly and steadily” in recent years as indicated by Istat in a recent survey. A situation against which the Minister of Health Schillaci is planning a new tightening, 20 years after the Sirchia law, on smoking in general, but also extending the bans to e-cigarettes.
Towards updating of the law on smoking, including e-cig bans
During the hearing before the Social Affairs Commission of the Chamber, the minister announced his intention to “propose the updating and expansion of law 3/2003 to extend the ban on smoking to other outdoor places in the presence of minors and women in pregnancy; eliminate the possibility of equipping smoking rooms in closed rooms; extend the ban also to emissions from new products such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products; extend the ban on advertising to new products containing nicotine”.
Experts in favor of the measure
A hypothesis also recently advocated by former Health Minister Girolamo Sirchia who gave his name to the law, exactly 20 years old, for the introduction of the ban on cigarettes in public places, changing the habits of Italians. And the measure finds favor with experts, who have long emphasized the health risks deriving from new products such as electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco.
E-cigs used by 1.5 people
According to Istat data «in 2014 there were around 800 thousand e-cig users over the age of 14, then, especially starting from 2017, there was a progressive increase, up to almost one and a half million people in 2021, especially among young”. “We have no scientific proof that they help to stop smoking and using nicotine – says Roberta Pacifici, director of the National Center for Addiction and Doping of the Higher Institute of Health – indeed our data show that these new products – electronic cigarettes and also the heated tobacco – contribute to the recurrence of those who had quit and also hinder the cessation, i.e. the path of sharing that people undertake precisely to free themselves from this addiction. This is now an established fact.” Furthermore, “87% of those who consume electronic cigarettes are dual consumers, that is, they consume both electronic and traditional ones”.
WHO warning
In Italy there are «93 thousand deaths every year due to tobacco, 20.6% of all deaths – denounces the Italian Society of Environmental Medicine (Sima) which promotes the measures announced by the minister with full marks. Last October, the World Health Organization also warned against the damage to the eyes caused by secondhand smoke
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