Smoking Ban Policies in Italy and the Potential Impact of the So-Called Sirchia Law : State of the Art after Eight Years

Objective. The aim of the present work is to describe the state of the art of tobacco habits in Italy, eight years after the law was introduced. Methods. Time series analyses, based on estimates of smoking prevalence/consumption derived from the openly available data of national surveys performed during the 2001–2013 period, were performed. Data have been expressed in percentage of smokers and daily cigarettes consumption. Time changes are expressed as expected annual percentage change (EAPC). Results. Over time, the percentage of Italian smokers shows a constant and statistically significant decrease (from 28.9% in 2001 to 20.6% in 2013, EAPC = −2.6%, and P