Italy is known as a 'smoker's paradise'.

Italy is known for its tolerant of smoking, with parents pulling strollers smoking in parks and streets.

Recently, however, a plan to expand non-smoking areas outdoors in Italy has led to a sudden controversy.

According to local media La Stampa on the 6th, Health Minister Orazio Schilachi recently introduced a bill to expand smoke-free areas.

In Italy, there has been a continuous movement to expand smoke-free areas since the indoor smoke-free law came into force in January 2005, this time with plans to expand to the outdoors.

According to Italy's National Institute of Higher Health (ISS), the smoking rate among adults in Italy last year was 1.24%, the highest since 2. That's 2009 in 4 adults who smoke.

In response, Schilach stressed in parliament last month that "measures must be taken to ensure that every citizen is committed to protecting health, which is a fundamental right of the individual and the benefit of the community."

The draft bill calls for outside bars and bus stops to be included in non-smoking areas.

Parks also prohibit smoking if pregnant women and children are around, and e-cigarettes as well as tobacco are prohibited.

However, the bill needs cabinet approval before it can go to parliament to be implemented, and there are reportedly loud voices of opposition.

Deputy Culture Minister Vittorio Sgarbi criticized the move as "an idea that would only come from an authoritarian and authoritarian regime" and that "it would encourage people to smoke."

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini said that "e-cigarettes are helping the general public quit smoking at the beginning of the year" and expressed some opposition to banning e-cigarettes while supporting tobacco bans.

As a result, attention is being paid to whether the law will be implemented.