The singer Fedez while smoking an electronic cigarette (Gian Mattia D’Alberto/LaPresse)
The advances of a proposal from the Minister of Health have generated some discussions, even in the majority
Sunday newspaper The print published an article that contained a series of rather detailed indiscretions on the content of a bill that the Minister of Health, Orazio Schillaci, is allegedly working on: the aim of the law is to severely limit the possibility of smoking traditional cigarettes outdoors and indoors electronic ones and those that heat smokeless tobacco (which are often also called “Iqos”, from the name of the most widespread brand of this type of product).
The information reported by Press they were contained in what was described as a “draft” of the provision, i.e. a document still under development, which could therefore undergo various modifications both before being presented to parliament and before any final approval. In the meantime, however, the news was taken up by many newspapers and widely commented, and a small debate arose: various politicians exposed themselves among the others, some of them in a clearly contrary manner, making it clear that even within the same majority There are different ideas in the government on the need to introduce new limits on smoking.
The measure on which the ministry is working, according to these advances, would ban smoking outdoors at the tables of bars and restaurants, at bus and other means of transport stops and in parks: in the latter case only if you found near children or pregnant women, but it is not yet clear whether a precise distance will be established within which to apply the ban. There should also be a ban on smoking indoors, including electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco. Today it is permitted to smoke electronic cigarettes even in enclosed spaces, except in schools and hospitals (and in the courtyards or open spaces of hospitals), while the more recent heated tobacco products are not yet regulated: there are venues that invite customers not to use them and others who allow it, in the absence of official rules. The advances also contained the possibility of fines of 275 euros for transgressors, to be reduced by half for those who pay within 60 days.
From the Ministry of Health there have been no official comments and the same Press he did not clarify what times we should expect for it to be talked about in a more concrete way and with some officiality. In this regard, the article was rather uncertain about the nature of the provision: that is, it is not clear whether the measures will be contained in a bill, therefore passing from a longer discussion in parliament, or in a decree-law, therefore with a more immediate act of the government, which the parliament would then have to convert into law in the following 60 days.
In any case, the measures seem plausible: in January, Minister Schillaci had already anticipated his intention to work on a measure of this kind in a hearing in the Chamber. On that occasion he had said that he would propose the “expansion” of some bans already contained in the so-called “anti-smoking law” of 2003 (the one that introduced the ban on smoking in closed places, signed by the then Minister of Health Girolamo Sirchia). Schillaci had spoken precisely of “extending the ban on smoking to other outdoor places in the presence of minors and pregnant women”, of eliminating smoking rooms in closed rooms, of introducing bans on smoking indoors electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco products and to extend the ban on advertising already in force for traditional cigarettes to the latter.
Now that the issue has entered the public debate, however, the law the ministry is working on could be influenced by a series of pressures, and as a consequence some restrictions considered unpopular could be relaxed. In addition to the complaints of many smokers, there were also contrary opinions within the government itself: the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini, of the League, he judged for example, a possible ban on smoking electronic cigarettes outdoors is “exaggerated”, because they would be “helping many people to abandon the normal ones”.
Giorgio Mulè, deputy of Forza Italia and vice president of the Chamber, seemed to have a similar position, however inviting in a more general way not to “cross the threshold of common sense”. In the main party in government, the Brothers of Italy, the deputy Giovanni Donzelli invited instead to wait for the official announcement, avoiding commenting on indiscretions. Some criticisms but also comments of appreciation then came from members of the opposition: the former Undersecretary for Health Sandra Zampa, of the Democratic Party, said, for example, that she understood “Minister Schillaci’s severity” on the issue.
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