Abstract
Aims and background. A law banning smoking in enclosed public places was implemented in Italy on January 10, 2005. The aim of this paper is to present a cross-sectional survey on two representative samples of non-smokers of two Italian towns (Florence and Belluno), conducted one year after the introduction of the ban, in order to assess prevalence of second-hand smoke exposure, to record the attitudes towards the ban, and the perception about its compliance in a representative sample of non-smokers. Methods. Computer-assisted telephone interviews were carried out in March 2006, from a random sample of households from telephone registries. Respondents were 402 non-smokers from Belluno and 1,073 from Florence. Results. About 12% of Florentines and 7% of Belluno respondents were exposed at home; 39% and 19%, respectively, at work; 10% and 5% in hospitality venues; 20% and 10% in cars. The smoke-free law was almost universally supported (about 98%) even if a smaller proportion of people (about 90%) had the perception that the ban was observed. Conclusions. Second-hand smoke exposure at home and in hospitality premises has dropped to ≤10%, whereas exposure at work remained higher. These results suggest the need for more controls in workplaces other than hospitality venues.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 798-802 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Tumori |
Volume | 94 |
Issue number | 6 |
State | Published - Nov 2008 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Italy
- Second-hand smoke
- Smoking ban
- Survey
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Cancer Research
- Oncology