BMJ  2005;331:1159 (19 November), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7526.1159-a

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Italy's smoking ban has led to an 8% drop in tobacco consumption

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The restriction of smoking in public places in Italy has led to an 8% drop in cigarette consumption, a new study says.

And the ban on smoking in indoor public places has been almost universally accepted and does not seem to have had an adverse effect on business, say the authors of the study, which was published online ahead of print publication on 7 November in the Annals of Oncology (http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/, doi: 10.1093/annonc/mdj070[Abstract/Free Full Text]).

"The results of our study on the first extensive smoking ban in a large country show the advantages of smoke-free legislation, which may have major public health implications," wrote the authors, who come from a number of centres and organisations in Milan and Rome, including the Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche, the Istituto Superiore di Sanita, the Istituto DOXA, and Gallup International.

On 10 January this year the Italian government banned smoking in all indoor public places, including cafes, restaurants (except for a few with separate and regulated smoking areas), airports, and railway stations, as well as in all public and private workplaces.

The authors also compared smoking consumption data from nationally representative, population based surveys and from official sales figures.

Data from official legal sales data show that 28.3 million kg of cigarettes were sold in Italy in the period January to April 2005. In the same period last year 31.1 million kg were sold.

"This corresponds to a decline in cigarette sales by 8.9%. This compares well with a 7.6% fall in consumption revealed by the comparison between results from the 2005 survey and those from a companion survey conducted in March-April 2004," the authors wrote.

The fall in consumption from 2004 to 2005 was 23% for the 15-24 year age group.

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