Milan has become the first Italian city to introduce an extensive outdoor ban on smoking as part of a package of measures to improve the city’s air quality.
According to a BBC report, smoking within 10 metres of other people is no longer permitted at bus and tram stops as well as in the city’s parks and green spaces, sports and recreational grounds, children’s play areas, stadiums and cemeteries.
Milan, one of Italy’s most densely populated cities, is located on the flat plain of the Po Valley, which has the highest levels of air pollution in Western Europe.
Municipal councillor Marco Granelli says the ban’s aim is twofold: to help reduce dangerous fine particles in the air known as PM10, currently well over the European limit, and to protect citizens’ health.
Cigarette smoke accounts for 8% of the city’s PM10.
Italy was the first country in the European Union to introduce an indoor ban on smoking in public places, in January 2005.