Return to to grow up the number of smokers in Italy: they are about 800 thousand more compared to 2019. It is the first significant increase since 2006 and concerns both men and women. Not only. IS tripled the consumption of cigarettes a heated tobacco. It is the photograph taken from the report of the Higher Institute of Health on the occasion of the World No Tobacco Day promoted by WHO, which is celebrated on May 31st. Almost one in four Italians (24.2%) is a smoker: a percentage that had not been registered since 2006. In 2019, the last year of the pre-pandemic survey, the percentage of smokers was 22%.
“The increase in smokers found in the report is a wake-up call worry and with respect to which it is important to activate actions of prevention starting from the youngest to guarantee a longer life, with less disabilities and qualitatively better for us and for those who live next to us “, he declares Silvio Brusaferropresident of the higher institute of health (ISS).
The trend observed in the three-year period 2017-2019 which saw a constant decrease in smokers, notes the Higher Institute of Health (Iss), is not confirmed in 2022: this year there is an increase in the percentage of smokers concerning both sexes. Those who smoke cigarettes on heated tobacco have increased to 3,3%: triple compared to 1.1% in 2019. In addition, more than one in three people (36.6%) consider them less harmful than traditional ones. For this reason, the theme proposed by the World Health Organization for tomorrow’s World No Tobacco Day is focused onimpact of tobacco on planet: from cultivation, production, distribution and waste. The campaign, underlines the ISS, “aims to highlight the efforts of the tobacco industry to ‘appear eco-sustainable‘and improve its reputation and that of its products by marketing them as environmentally friendly “.
SMOKERS OF ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES ARE GROWING
The report also shows the increase in users of electronic cigaretteswhich in the great majority are ‘dual smokers‘: l’81,9% of those who use an e-cig, also smoke traditional cigarettes. 2.8% of regular or occasional electronic cigarette smokers are people who had never smoked traditional cigarettes before using the e-cig. In Italy, the ISS notes, the users usual and occasional of e-cig they are 2.4% of the population, almost 1,200,000 people. After a trend that saw a decrease in users in previous years, in 2022 they seem to be on the increase again (they were 2.5% in 2017, 2.1 in 2018, 1.7% in 2019). The increase in new tobacco products, underlines the ISS in the report, has also contributed to changing the trend of previous years. “This year’s data – says Roberta Pacifici, head of the National Center for Addiction and Doping of the ISS – confirms that pandemic have significantly affected le consumption habits of tobacco products and nicotine from Italians. New tobacco products and electronic cigarettes have added to the consumption of traditional cigarettes and their users are in fact almost exclusively dual consumers. There false perception to consume products that are less or even not harmful to health and to feel authorized to use them in any placenotwithstanding the Sirchia law, they certainly are affecting the increase in their consumption“.
NO SMOKING IN PUBLIC PLACES
It increases the confidence of e-cigarette smokers and heated tobacco smokers to use these products in public places such as means of transport (public and private), clubs, bars. In 2019, those who felt free to smoke electronic cigarettes in public places were 62.6%: today it is 66,8%. As for heated tobacco cigarette smokers 62% in 2019 would have smoked in public places, today, three years later, I am the 74% of consumers. “The percentage increases – notes the ISS – recorded in 2022 by users of both types of products willing to transgress the smoking bans, send a further clear warning signal against a legislation still too fragile towards products other than traditional cigarettes “. After more than 15 years from the entry into force of the anti-smoking law (Sirchia law),” compliance with the ban on smoking indoors has become a behavior adopted in most cases and in all Italy with substantial compliance with the law “, writes the ISS in a note.” Unfortunately, the introduction on the market of alternative products to traditional cigarettes (e-cig and heated tobacco cigarettes) and legislation not yet adequate to the new scenarios of the market for these products, are calling into question the education to respectful behavior towards non-smokers “, underlines the Higher Institute of Health.
SMOKE CENTERS DOWN
There are currently 223 anti-smoking centers throughout the national territory. This is the figure that emerges from the latest census carried out by the ISS and updated in May 2022. “The decreasing trend in the number of Anti-Smoking Centers active in Italy continues: there were in fact 268 in 2021 and 292 in 2019”, underlines the Institute. Furthermore, the distribution of the Anti-Smoking Centers is not homogeneous on the national territory: 61% of the services are located in the North, 17% in the Center and 22% in the South and the Islands. In the ISS report published on the eve of the World No Tobacco Day promoted by WHO, the ISS recalls the initiatives implemented to help citizens quit smoking: the online platform ‘Smettodifumare’ offers the geo-localized map of the Anti-Smoking Centers present in the area national, providing directions to reach them. Since its inception in 2000, the Toll-Free Telephone no. 800 554088 has taken charge of over 98,000 phone calls and in the last year (1 May 2021 – 30 April 2022) over 8,500 phone calls have come to the service. Calls come more from the North (40% of the total) then from the South and the Islands (37%), and finally from the Center of the country (23%). Those who call, the ISS announced, are almost always a smoker (92%), but there are also calls from family and friends who ask for help to stop their loved ones from smoking (7%). 65% of smokers who contact the Service are male and 35% are female and are distributed fairly evenly in the various age groups.