Florence, May 8, 2015

Mme Sabine Oberhauser

Minister for Health

Federal Ministry of Health

Radetzkystraße 2

1030 Vienna - Austria

Open letter for the attention of

· Sabine Oberhauser, Minister for Health

· Reinhold Mitterlehner, Vice Chancellor of Austria, Federal Minister of Science, Research and the Economy

Subject: Contribution of Dr. Giuseppe Gorini, ISPO, Florence, Italy, to the draft Austrian tobacco legislation in progress

Dear Mme Oberhauser,

I am writing to you in response to the draft tobacco legislation that is currently in progress.

I conducted in collaboration with Prof. Hans Monshammer and Prof. Manfred Neuberger, Wien University,  the “Italy and Austria before and after study: second-hand smoke exposure in hospitality premises before and after 2 years from the introduction of the Italian smoking ban”, published in the international journal “Indoor Air” in 2008 (see: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18429994).

In Italy the smoking ban was implemented in 2005 and it was a great success. Exposure to second-hand smoke dropped after the implementation of the law in Italy. Moreover, the perception of the compliance with the ban is still increasing in 2012, so even after 8 years since its implementation, and this may partially have caused the concurrent increase in smoke-free homes. In fact, the change in the social acceptability of smoking due to the implementation of the smoking ban, determined an increase of the adoption of smoke-free homes, and in 2012 77% of respondents in a survey to a representative sample of Italians reported to live in smoke-free homes (see the article published in the “International Journal of Public Health”: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24604422 ). This result is particularly important for the protection from exposure to second-hand smoke of children at home.

Kind regards      

On behalf of all Authors,

Giuseppe Gorini

Environmental and Occupational Epidemiology Unit
ISPO Cancer Prevention and Research Institute

Via delle Oblate, 2 – 50141 Firenze
tel. +39.055.7972562

e-mail: g.gorini@ispo.toscana.it