2023-05-30 17:49:13
20.5% of Italians over the age of 15 have not lost their habit of smoking: 10.5 million smokers, 25.1% of men and 16.3% of women. They are down compared to the past, but the number of cigarettes drawn is increasing. Not only. Smokers are becoming multi-consumers and the alarm concerns above all adolescents: more than a third of students between 14 and 17 who take nicotine use one of the products available on the market, and a substantial proportion use them all. This is the photograph taken by the National Report on Tobacco Use of the Higher Institute of Health, released on the eve of tomorrow’s World No Tobacco Day, promoted by the WHO.
On average, 12.2 cigarettes are smoked a day and a quarter of smokers exceed 20. More people smoke in the South (29.7% men and 18.9% women) than in the Center (23.0% men and 12.9% women). 5% women) and the average age of smokers is 46.7 years. In general, 81.1% consume packaged cigarettes, 11.2% handmade cigarettes, 14% heated tobacco products and 5% e-cigarettes.
Consumption in adolescents is especially worrying (Iss-Explora survey). 36.6% of students in the 14-17 age range and 9.6% between 11 and 13 consume at least one product, including traditional cigarettes, e-cigs or heated tobacco (at least once in the month preceding the survey). In contrast to adults, young people consume more frequently among girls. Among 14-17 year olds who smoke tobacco or nicotine, 38.7% are ‘polyconsumers’, ie they use more than one product, while the rest of the sample is divided almost equally between exclusive consumers of traditional cigarettes and electronic cigarettes. Adolescents who consume tobacco or products containing nicotine also have a greater propensity to take alcohol and other substances, and have greater emotional fragility and in relationships with school and family.
In the 14-17 age group, 80.3% of those who consume tobacco or nicotine have consumed alcohol in the last month, against 37.5% of those who do not. Among consumers, the percentage of those who declared having taken cannabis or psychoactive substances or having taken anxiolytics in the last month is also much higher. 68.3% of those who consume tobacco or nicotine declare a poor quality of sleep compared to 48.4% of those who do not use them. Also higher is the percentage of those who have difficulty talking to their parents, of those who have worse school performance (failed or with a lower academic performance than the class average) and of those who have problematic use of social media.
“It is necessary to monitor all products on the market containing tobacco and/or nicotine – underlines Simona Pichini, who directs the ISS National Addiction and Doping Center – This is because these are devices that create addiction in very young people, who should not neither use nor buy them, and which expose young people to new substances and in quantities that cannot be controlled”.
“In the light of the results of the surveys conducted on young people, the data on the consumption of new products are worrying – explains Luisa Mastrobattista, a researcher at the National Center for Addiction and Doping of the ISS – since among those who consume at least one product containing tobacco or nicotine, 83.6% of 11-13 year olds and 59.8% of 14-17 year olds use e-cigarettes and 9.9% of 11-13 year olds and 33.2% of 14-17 year olds use heated tobacco.” It is important – comments the president of the ISS, Silvio Brusaferro – to be able to make use of the latest scientific evidence available in order to guide citizens’ choices”.
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