Chain smoking in Italy is on the rise, a report by the Higher Institute of Health (ISS) warned on Friday.
Although around 600,000 Italians have given up smoking in the last year, the number of confirmed nicotine addicts who are getting through more than one packet a day has risen to 36%, an increase of 4% on 2007.
According to Piergiorgio Zuccaro of the ISS Smoking, Alcohol and Drugs Observatory, there is also a disturbing trend for heavy smoking among young people.
Around 1.5 million people between the ages of 15 and 24, of whom 140,000 are under 17, are smoking more than ten cigarettes a day.
Some 26% of all Italian men and 18% of women smoke - a total of 11.2 million people - with most people lighting up their first cigarette at the age of 17.
A 2005 national ban on smoking in offices, bars and restaurants as well as the rising cost of tobacco are among factors thought to be behind the drop in the number of smokers.
''There are fewer smokers in Italy, but there is a generation of Italians - between 40 and 60 years old - who are at high risk of being hit by smoking-related illnesses because they have been consuming tobacco over a long period,'' warned Silvio Garattini of the Mario Negri Drug Research Institute, which collaborated on the report.
Cigarette-related illnesses including lung cancer and cardiovascular and respiratory problems currently cost the Italian health system around six billion euros a year.
