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Brief report
Attitudes towards the extension of smoking restrictions to selected outdoor areas in Italy
  1. Silvano Gallus1,
  2. Valentina Rosato1,
  3. Piergiorgio Zuccaro2,
  4. Roberta Pacifici2,
  5. Paolo Colombo3,
  6. Marco Manzari4,
  7. Carlo La Vecchia1,5
  1. 1Department of Epidemiology, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche “Mario Negri”, Milan, Italy
  2. 2Dipartimento del Farmaco, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy
  3. 3Istituto DOXA, Gallup International Association, Milan, Italy
  4. 4Dipartimento di Traumatologia, Ortopedia e Medicina del Lavoro, Università degli Studi di Torino, Turin, Italy
  5. 5Dipartimento di Medicina del Lavoro “Clinica del Lavoro Luigi Devoto”, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
  1. Correspondence to Silvano Gallus, Department of Epidemiology, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche “Mario Negri”, Via La Masa 19, Milano 10156, Italy; silvano.gallus{at}marionegri.it

Abstract

Objectives To estimate the attitudes of Italians on the extension of the smoking ban to selected public outdoor areas.

Methods The authors considered data from two Italian surveys on smoking conducted in 2009 and 2010 on a total sample of 6233 individuals, representative of the Italian population aged 15 years or over.

Results 64.6% of Italians supported smoke-free policies in public parks, 68.5% in sports stadiums, 62.1% in beaches, 85.9% in school courtyards and 79.9% in outdoor areas surrounding hospitals. Among current smokers, the corresponding estimates were 32.9% for parks, 38.2% for stadiums, 31.2% for beaches, 67.6% for schools and 55.3% for hospitals.

Conclusions Extension of the smoking ban to selected outdoor areas is supported by the large majority of the Italian population. The overwhelming majority of support for smoke-free school grounds and outdoor areas surrounding hospitals indicates that legislative action is required.

  • Epidemiology
  • Italy
  • population survey
  • smoking ban
  • tobacco smoking
  • public opinion polls
  • public policy
  • surveillance and monitoring

https://doi.org/10.1136/tc.2010.040774

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    Footnotes

    • Funding This work was conducted with contributions from the Italian Ministry of Health, the Italian League Against Cancer and the Italian Association for Cancer Research.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.