Ban on smoking outdoors to counter the spread of Covid-19. In Spain there is a growing movement asking for restrictive measures in this sense: the aerosol ‘cloud’ produced by traditional and electronic cigarettes could be a vector of the virus especially in places, such as terraces or dehors, where the distance between customers is reduced. .
According to José Luis Díaz-Maroto Muñoz, Communications Manager Grupo de Tabaquismo de Semergen (Sociedad Española de Médicos de Atención Primaria), “whoever exhales the smoke projects it from a greater distance than when speaking or breathing. aerosol that transmits the virus at least 8 meters away. This is why it is important not to smoke outdoors when you are close to people “.
In Spain, some autonomous communities – writes ‘El Pais’ – are working on a ban on smoking outdoors. “The distance of one and a half meters between the chairs of diners in an open-air restaurant is enough if customers just talk and eat – warns Díaz-Maroto Muñoz – But it’s not good if you smoke a cigarette”.
BASSETTI
“It is clear that there are potentially virus particles in the smoke, because when we eliminate the smoke (from cigarettes, pipes, e-cigs) it is clear that we also aerosol virus particles if we are positive. But not. there is a study that shows that those who smoke transmit more Covid than those who breathe deeply close to you. Banning smoking in the open air is excessive, we are careful otherwise here we go more and more towards bans when we should go in another direction ” Matteo Bassetti, director of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the San Martino hospital in Genoa and member of the Covid-19 crisis unit of Liguria, told time.news Salute.
“If anyone who lights up a cigarette and then takes off their mask has a person next to them, they can infect them – warns Bassetti – but this can only happen where there is a crowd of people and if the protective device is not worn. For me, the ban is a paradox, just a little common sense – he concludes – those who smoke will try to put themselves in an area away from other people to avoid shooting smoke at them “.
MINELLI
“Certainly the consolidated habit of smoking can be considered an element capable of enhancing the inflammation related to the Covid-19 disease, but identifying in occasional passive smoking an increased possibility of risk of contracting Sars-CoV-2 remains hypothesis at the moment. without any foundation “, underlines to time.news Salute the immunologist Mauro Minelli, responsible for the South of the Italian Foundation for personalized medicine, commenting on the news.
“A dated and controversial issue, in which nicotine was even considered a substance capable of acting positively on Covid patients, due to some anti-inflammatory effects it would have – Minelli recalls – In reality, the reliable data relating to the risks of Covid -19 related to the use of cigarettes are few, unless we include among these the need, for those who are smoking in a public place, to lower the mask thereby exhaling into the surrounding air the possible virus of which the smoker could being an unconscious carrier. But this is no longer an action directly related to smoking as such “.
“Certainly, what can be said is that the pandemic has not encouraged smokers to quit, especially because of the isolation at home which, on the contrary, has helped to consolidate smoking habits by increasing the quantities of active smoking and, unfortunately, also passive – warns the immunologist – And, as already reported several times, cigarette smoke leads to an increased expression of Ace2, the famous’ key ‘receptor through which the new coronavirus triggers, through its’ spike protein ‘, the deadly pathological process of which it is capable “.
“In addition to this – concludes Minelli – it is known that cigarette smoke, but also the aromas of electronic cigarettes, upregulate the production of ‘enemy’ cytokines, that is, inflammatory mediators (Ccl20 and Cxcl8 in cigarette smokers; Ccl5 and CcR1 in e-cigarette consumers), which does not seem to happen in cases where flavoring and nicotine-free products are used for e-smoking “.