In Italy, 16% of students aged between 13 and 15 smoke regularly, mostly girls, and the smoking ban in schools is still little respected. However, the overall number of young smokers decreased overall from 2010 to 2022, going from 21% to 16%: one student in four used at least once in the last month a product including cigarettes, e-cigs and heated tobacco products and almost one in three has smoked a traditional cigarette at least once in their life.
The data emerges from the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (Gyts), coordinated by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and conducted every four years on a sample of 13-15 year olds from Italian schools (this year over 2 thousand) which for the first time sees a higher percentage of use among females compared to males for all products considered. The survey also recorded insufficient adherence to the smoking ban in schools, a strong exposure of children to secondhand smoke, at home or in the car, and great accessibility to all products despite the bans. The use of the e-cig is increasing, which was detected for the first time with the 2018 survey and has risen from 18% to 20% in 4 years. Even the heated tobacco device, recorded for the first time in the 2022 survey, is used by 14% of habitual smokers. Although the 2016 Tobacco decree provides for the tightening of penalties for non-compliance with the ban on sales to minors, the 2022 survey shows that these measures have not yet translated into full inaccessibility for minors to these products: a 13-15 year old out of 4 bought cigarettes directly from the tobacconist (there were 49% in 2010) and 14% said they bought e-cigs directly from retailers. For both of these two products, almost half say they got them from a relative or friend. Among habitual smokers who have tried to buy cigarettes at tobacconists, 73% declare that they have not received any refusal from the seller due to being a minor (percentage which reached 92% in 2010). Furthermore, exposure to secondhand smoke, in schools, at home and in the car, is still too high. Although since 2003 the Sirchia law has imposed a ban on smoking in all enclosed spaces, including schools, and since 2013 the Lorenzin bill has banned smoking in the external appurtenances of schools, 1 out of 3 students reports seeing someone smoking inside of their own school and 58% in external appurtenances (courtyards, car parks, etc.). Almost half of the young people interviewed (47%) declare that someone smoked in the house in her presence.
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