The number of smokers in Italy is growing again: they are about 800 thousand more than in 2019. It is the first significant increase since 2006 and affects both men and women.
Not only.
The consumption of heated tobacco cigarettes has tripled.
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 detected by the report is a sign of concern and in relation to which it is important to activate prevention actions starting from the youngest to ensure a longer life, with less disability and qualitatively better for us and for those who live there alongside ", declares Silvio Brusaferro, president of the higher health institute (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 heated tobacco cigarettes increased to 3.3%: three times the 1.1% in 2019. Furthermore, 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 on the impact of tobacco on the planet: from cultivation, production, distribution and waste.
The campaign, underlines the ISS, "aims to highlight the efforts of the tobacco industry to '
The report also shows an increase in e-cigarette users, who in the vast majority are 'dual smokers': 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 points out, the regular and occasional users of e-cigs 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.
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This year's data - says Roberta Pacifici, head of the National Center for Addiction and Doping of the ISS - confirms how the pandemic has significantly influenced Italians' consumption habits of tobacco and nicotine products.
New tobacco products and e.cig have been added to the consumption of traditional cigarettes and their users are in fact almost exclusively dual consumers.
The false perception of consuming products that are less or even not harmful to health and the feeling of being authorized to use them everywhere, notwithstanding the Sirchia law, are certainly affecting the increase in their consumption ".
ISS - confirms how the pandemic has significantly influenced the consumption habits of tobacco and nicotine products of Italians.
New tobacco products and e.cig have been added to the consumption of traditional cigarettes and their users are in fact almost exclusively dual consumers.
The false perception of consuming products that are less or even not harmful to health and the feeling of being authorized to use them everywhere, notwithstanding the Sirchia law, are certainly affecting the increase in their consumption ".
ISS - confirms how the pandemic has significantly influenced the consumption habits of tobacco and nicotine products of Italians.
New tobacco products and e.cig have been added to the consumption of traditional cigarettes and their users are in fact almost exclusively dual consumers.
The false perception of consuming products that are less or even not harmful to health and the feeling of being authorized to use them everywhere, notwithstanding the Sirchia law, are certainly affecting the increase in their consumption ".
It also increases the confidence of smokers of electronic cigarettes and heated tobacco, 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 smokers of heated tobacco cigarettes, 62% in 2019 would have smoked in public places, today, three years later, they are 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 legislation that is still too fragile in relation to products other than traditional cigarette ".
More than 15 years after
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 throughout 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 market scenarios for these products, are calling into question the education to respectful behavior towards of non-smokers ", underlines the Higher Institute of Health.
