From 1 January 2025 the city of Milan has officially established the smoking ban in public areasincluding roads, except for isolated places with people at least 10 meters away. This choice falls within the Air quality regulation and provides for offenders fines from 40 to 240 eurosalthough this ban only applies to traditional cigarettes and not to electronic ones or heated tobacco ones. The objective is to discourage smoking both for environmental reasons what about Health: this is in fact the leading cause of preventable death in Italy, with approx 93,000 victims per yearto which approximately 1000 linked to passive smoking.
Having said that, it is good to keep in mind that Milan is certainly not the first city to undertake such a choice: let’s take a brief overview to see which other cities have introduced bans of this type.
The ban on smoking outdoors in Italy
Among the large Italian cities, in addition to Milan, also Turin from April 2025 has imposed a smoking ban if there are other people within 5 metres – unless they give explicit consent. Similar speech also for Rome, which has extended the smoking ban within its parks and green areas, and Naples, which banned smoking during public demonstrations.
Much has also been done in seaside resorts: the first, in this sense, was Bibione, in Veneto, which in 2019 introduced a ban on smoking cigarettes on the beach. This choice was then also taken up by other seaside municipalities along the coast Lazio, Romagna, Puglia and of Costa Smeralda.
It is worth highlighting how these regulations vary from municipality to municipality: if, in some cases, we only talk about tobacco, in others the limits are applied to concept of smoking in generaltherefore also including electronic cigarettes.
Outdoor smoking bans around the world
This type of initiative, as it is easy to imagine, has an international scope and already today numerous metropolises have banned smoking in public places. It was one of the first totally smoke-free cities Melbourne which, starting from 2013, has introduced a series of rules to increasingly limit the use of cigarettes – both normal and electronic. Also in the same vein Sweden, which in 2019 extended the outdoor smoking ban throughout the national territory and which aims to become totally smoke free by the end of 2025.
Similar – but less restrictive – provisions are instead present in many metropolises around the world: let’s talk for example about New York, which introduced a ban on smoking in public places in 2011, or of California, which prohibits doing so on the beach and near the entrance to public buildings. Also Paris has banned smoking in parks, as well as Barcelona he did it on his beaches and Tokyo in every public space. The choice of the is also curious Bhutan, in Asia, where the only place where smoking is allowed is there own home.
