Smokers in Italy’s financial and fashion capital of Milan risk being fined for lighting up on city streets or crowded public areas, after the country’s toughest ban came into effect on Wednesday.

Those who defy the new prohibition in the polluted northern Italian city could be fined between 40 and 240 euros ($41 to $249), a punishment that does not sit well with all residents.

Milan’s air quality ordinance, passed in 2020 by the city council, called for progressively stricter bans on smoking. Starting in 2021, it was forbidden to smoke in parks and playgrounds, as well as bus stops and sports facilities.

The latest smoking ban, effective January 1, applies to “all public spaces, including streets”, with the exception of “isolated places where it is possible to maintain a distance of at least 10 metres from other people”, according to the text.

Local officials say the measure is aimed at reducing airborne particulates to “improve the quality of the city’s air, to protect the health of citizens, including protection from passive smoking in public places, also frequented by children”, according to a statement.

Italy’s first national smoking ban, in 1975, prohibited smoking on public transportation and in classrooms and certain other areas. In 1995, the ban was extended to public administration areas, and in 2005, to all enclosed public areas, making it at the time a pioneer in Europe.

Some 19 percent of Italians smoke, according to the National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) based on 2023 data, lower than the 24 percent average within the European Union.

Averaging around six euros a pack in Italy, cigarettes are also among the cheapest in Europe, where prices of about 10 euros are more common.

Italy’s health ministry says that 93,000 deaths per year are attributed to smoking.

Smoking is responsible for roughly 85 percent of all cases of lung cancer, the deadliest cancer worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Within the European Union, 17 countries have passed smoke-free legislation, with Ireland, Greece, Bulgaria, Malta, Spain and Hungary the strictest.

In Europe, the fewest smokers are found in Sweden, where eight percent of the population lights up. Worst off is Bulgaria, with smokers making up 37 percent.