Through this measure, the municipality of the Italian economic capital, the most polluted city in the country, wishes to improve air quality.
The era of Rocco and his brothers, where Annie Girardot, embraced by her lover near a Milanese open-air restaurant, nonchalantly puffed on her cigarette, is no more. The Italian city bans, from January 1, 2025, smoking in all public spaces. This municipal decision, voted on in council in 2020, comes into force.
Certain places have already been hit by this ban since 2021: bus stops, parks, playgrounds, cemeteries and sports facilities such as stadium stands. This time, this will also be the case in the streets, under penalty of being fined between €40 and €240. The only exception to the rule: if you are at least 10 meters from another person.
“Discourage lifestyles harmful to health”
The municipality's objective, according to a press release published on December 26: “improve the city’s air quality” et “protect the health of citizens”particularly against passive smoking. “It is above all an awareness-raising action which aims to discourage lifestyles that are harmful to the health of everyone, not just smokers”says the environment deputy, Elena Grandi. A smoker herself, the chosen one promises that she will “the first to change her habits”.
The city, administered since 2016 by the center-left mayor and member of the Italian Green Party, Giuseppe Sala, is committed to reducing pollution. At the start of 2024, he proposed banning cars in Milan city center. Although the measure has not yet been adopted, limited traffic zones have emerged in the historic center.
Milan, the most polluted city in Italy
Milan, the economic capital of the Italian peninsula, is often cited as the most polluted city in the country. In February 2024, for a few hours, the Swiss company IQAir, which draws up in real time the ranking of the cities in the world with the most polluted air, placed Milan in third position. A podium shared with Lahore in Pakistan and Dacca in Bangladesh. With its 1.4 million inhabitants, the Lombard city, located in a basin between the Alps and the Apennines, suffers from poor ventilation and a high concentration of polluting industries.
According to the regional environmental agency of Lombardy, tobacco is responsible, in Milan, for 7% of fine particles in the air. In France, several cities are starting to ban cigarettes outdoors. This is the case of Strasbourg, which voted last June to ban smoking in all the city's parks and gardens. Tobacco-free beaches are also multiplying, from Ouistreham in Calvados to Nice.
