New crackdown against traditional cigarettes but also against the most recent e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products.
The Ministry of Health led by Orazio Schillaci would already have the draft of the new measures ready.
From what has been learned, the new rules should provide for a ban on smoking, including e-cigs, in dehors, at public transport stops and also in parks if children and pregnant women are present.
Last January, Minister Schillaci anticipated his intention to extend the ban on smoking «in other outdoor places in the presence of minors and pregnant women; eliminate the possibility of equipping smoking rooms in closed rooms; extend the ban also to the emissions of new smokeless products (electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products); extend the ban on advertising to new products containing nicotine and devices for heated tobacco products".
In the draft, the smoking ban for all types of cigarettes would concern not only the interior of the premises but also the tables outside (smoking is only permitted if the establishment has an area reserved for smokers).
The new prohibitions, not yet definitive and subject to modifications, could be envisaged in a government-initiated bill, but the text could also be included in another provision during the approval stage.
Not everyone in the government likes the squeeze. Contrary, for example, Matteo Salvini , leader of the League and Minister of Infrastructure: «Electronic cigarettes are helping many people to abandon normal ones. As an ex-smoker who quit 4 years ago, the ban on smoking them outdoors seems over the top. What do you think?" Salvini wrote on Twitter, addressing his followers.
The oncologists are of the opposite opinion, who speak of «a positive decision because it is scientifically proven that smoking favors the onset of many types of tumours. Smoking is also related to cardiovascular and neurological pathologies, therefore the extension of the bans is undoubtedly acceptable".
