Films like Fellini’s 1960 Film “La Dolce Vita” created a picture of Italy as a smokers’ paradise. Cigarettes were the ubiquitous props of charming Socialities, tired reporters and almost anyone sitting in a cafe.
Those days are long gone. Many laws have gradually banned smoking in shared interior, such as film theaters and restaurants.
Now the city of the Milan Central-Led Government has shifted a step further and has become the first large Italian city that banned smoking outdoors if the smoker is not far from other people. You can no longer be around the door of office buildings. And no more smoke after dinner at the outdoor tables in restaurants.
According to the new rules that entered into force of January 1, smoking is forbidden everywhere, except for “isolated areas where the distance of at least 33 feet from other people can be respected”.
“People will smoke a little less, which is good for their health and health, and those who do not smoke will be less exposed to second hand smoke,” said Milan’s deputy Mayor Anna Scavuzzo in a recent interview. “We get used to the fact that smokers have to pay more attention to what they do, not non -smokers.”
Milan is an Italian fashion and design capital, which is known to attract elegant-often black clothing-dwarfs for the events of taste settings throughout the year. Those who come for a week of fashion this month will no longer find ashtrays on cafes and visitors who visit the trends of the Navigli district will be difficult to find to find somewhere to light up.
For detectives, the new rules are an attack on more than just smoking, but on a careful way of life.
“The real problem is not a cigarette, but the loss of freedom of choice,” Vittorio Feltri, one of the chiefs of Il Giornale, the conservative Milan newspaper, is in the editorial office. “In a world where we try to control all aspects of our lives, where we are afraid of everything, and everyone, smoking outdoors, among friends, is not just a gesture of the connecting power of tobacco, but an act of rebellion against agreement. ”
Smoking in public interior has been forbidden in Italy Since 2005When the national government adopted what was then one of the most difficult laws in Europe. At that time, many questioned how effective the ban would be in Italy, where cigarettes after a meal were as common as coffee. But The Italians complied withIf unwillingly and the number of smokers dropped from 22 percent to 19 percent of the population over 14 years, according to the National Statistical Agency ISAT and Data on the Ministry of Health.
Milan officials defend new rules as perhaps another advantage. Milan is one of the most polluted cities in Italy, and there is hope that outdoor restrictions will improve air quality by reducing some particles. According to the Regional Health Agency, cigarette smoke is responsible for 7 percent of urban particle emissions.
Mrs. Scavuzzo also stated that the new rules were quite partially, because the vast majority of Italians do not smoke, so their right was “no need to breathe the smoke of other people”.
Roberto Carlo Rossi, President of Milan Medical Association, acknowledged that the risk of smoke second hand is less outdoors than in the interior and adds that when people are 33 feet apart, “it is difficult for smoke to create problems.” But He also said it was never pleasant to feel smoke during meals.
“It’s a question of good behavior,” he said.
Last month, Anna Romano and Giorgia Cappello, smokers with packaging and day, were less upset than resigned. They said that when they struck desires, they were looking for isolated places and constantly encountered other smokers who were secretly inflated in the back streets.
“We all kept our distance,” Mrs. Romano said, suggesting that people were respectful. “Or maybe they were afraid to get a fine,” Mrs. Cappello said. Fines range from 40 to 240 euros, or about 42 to $ 249.
The local police followed fines for smoking outdoor, with only 16 years in force. But Mrs. Scavuzzo said that such a soft access may not last forever.
“If the measure is not accompanied by a fine,” she said, “the Italians are not so Scandinavian that they will respect the law regardless of it.”
There are several public critics such as the doctoral photograph of Giuseppe Saly, the mayor of the city smokes with the slogen: “You are not our father. We smoke ”or statue at the Milan Polytechnic University in Milan be equipped with a giant cigarette. But so far, the adhesion has been suppressed, albeit because the recent bad weather has maintained most people outside the restaurant’s outdoor tables.
One person who was angry is Marco Barbieri, a Secretary General for the Milan branch of the Association of Italian retailers Confcomercio, which includes bars and restaurants. He is sure that his association members will be chosen for fines, because it is easy to find out that there is eating or drinking smokers.
“We all know that smoking is bad for you,” he said, but the restriction “do not have a noble goal to educate themselves against smoking. The aim is the usual measure aimed at inconvenience and cause damage to companies using an alibi that smoking is bad. ”
He added that if the town hall was really interested in health and pollution, it would include an electronic cigarette. The city officials defended their actions and claimed that these facilities had not burned tobacco and believe they would probably have a great impact on the environment. They added that e-cigarette users can eventually be held according to the same standards as those who smoke regular cigarettes.
However, the decision to reduce the new rules for cigarettes has confused healthcare workers and researchers.
“This is a big mistake in the ban, because today young people start with electronic cigarettes,” and then move to traditional cigarettes that are relatively affordable in Italy, Silvano Gallus, researcher Mario Negri in Milan, said. Studies show That more than half of Italian young people between the age of 13 and 15 tried electronic cigarettes at least once, which was a trend that he called the “emergency situation”.
“It is a pity that e-cigarettes were not forbidden,” said Anna Mondino, Scientific Director AIRC Foundation for cancer research. “But we’ll get there.”
Any restriction “is absolutely welcome,” she added, because such measures, along with advertising warnings on cigarette packages, led to a decrease in death from lung cancer and related diseases in both smokers and smokers and second -hand smoke. This is not a small thing, she said, “At a time when social medicine in Italy and elsewhere in the world is basically unavailable.”
Some people are holding judgment.
“It is too soon to say” whether the new rules will hurt business, said Edoardo Icello, owner of Downtown Rubin Bar. “We’ll have to wait a few months to find out what happens.”
Nicolas Serra, a waiter in BIFFI, a historic restaurant inside the Milan Center Gallery Vittorio Emanuele II, said that the 33 -foot rule would be difficult to maintain: “There is no way to get people to stop smoking; The more you ban, the more people want to do it. ”
Mrs. Mondino of the Cancer Research Foundation Foundation has great hopes.
“Milan is a good test city because it is used for changes,” she said. “If Milan implements it, maybe the rest of Italy is listening to.”
