Background: From 10 January 2005 the Italian government banned smoking in all indoor public places. We conducted a population-based survey to provide information on attitudes towards smoking regulation and to disentangle the impact of the smoking ban on tobacco consumption.
Patients and methods: We considered data from a survey on smoking, based on 3114 subjects aged 15 or over, representative of the general adult Italian population in terms of age, sex, geographic area and socioeconomic status.
Results: Once smoke-free policies were introduced, support for them in the public opinion tended to increase. In Italy, smoke-free policies accounted for around 8% decrease in cigarette consumption in the short run. Moreover, tobacco bans were almost universally accepted, and the smoke-free legislation did not seem to unfavourably affect the business of restaurants or cafes.
Conclusions: The results of our study on the first extensive smoking ban in a large country show the advantages of smoke-free legislations, which may have major public health implications.