(Warning: Smoking is injurious to health)

It looks like Milan beat everyone to the New Year's resolutions this time. As the clock struck midnight and brought a calendar change, cigarettes became Cinderella—smoking hot but not to be seen in public anymore. Everyone who has ever smoked a cigarette and thought of never doing it again understands the feeling the fashion capital of Italy is heavy with.

Italy hadn't hopped on the healthy bandwagon in the last decade, which saw dramatic declines in the smoking habits of younger adults in the US and many other countries. According to a cross-sectional study conducted by National Health Interview Surveys between 2011 and 2022 in the US, “Adults younger than 40 years had dramatic declines in smoking prevalence during the last decade, especially among those with higher incomes”.

Milan's reasons for imposing a strict ban on smoking in public spaces are rooted in the city's effort to tackle air pollution. The city council sees smoking as a significant pollutant: cigarettes are responsible for 7% of total........

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