A cigarette giant stands out in the middle of Piazza della Repubblica: it is the two days of awareness on the risks caused by smoking “Get out of the tunnel. Don’t burn the future”, inaugurated today by the Councilor for Welfare of the Municipality of Florence Sara Funaro together with the Director General of Health. Welfare and Social Cohesion of the Tuscany Region Federico Gelli, Senator Caterina Biti and Lorenzo Livi, professor of Oncological Radiotherapy at the University of Florence and volunteer of the Oncological Radiotherapy Foundation (FRO).

“Get out of the tunnel. Don’t burn the future. This is the message that Walce Onlus (Women against lung cancer in Europe)Italian association founded in 2006 to support patients suffering from chest cancer to their families, has been running for six years, thanks to this initiative.

“Initiative like this – he comments the commissioner Funaro – turn the spotlight on the causes caused by smoking and encourage attention to be paid to the importance of cancer prevention, which is the first weapon to fight cancer. Thanks to the organizers who wanted to resume these important moments of awareness after the pandemic ”.

“We must reach the citizens directly – argues the Professor Silvia Novello, President of Walce Onlus and full professor at the Department of Oncology at the University of Turin – because the numbers are troubling. Although information on the effects of smoking on health has grown over the last few decades, about 11 million people still smoke in Italy (equal to 22% of men and 15% of women), according to the most updated ISTAT data of 2020 surveys conducted by the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) in collaboration with the Mario Negri Institute and Doxa. For this reason we must insist on information and education campaigns, hand in hand with measures that limit the impact of smoking ”.

“Collaborating on an initiative of this type is an integral part of the mission of our Foundation: raising awareness among the community on issues as current as that linked to the importance of quitting smoking and the promotion of healthy lifestyles, in fact, is a real investment for everyone’s health – declares the Professor Lorenzo Livi, full professor of Oncological Radiotherapy at the University of Florence and volunteer of the Oncological Radiotherapy Foundation (FRO) – Educating, informing and preventing are the key tools for daring concrete responses to the fight against thoracic neoplasms and this campaign is moving precisely in this direction “.

All activities are open to the public from 10 to 19, with free and free admission.

The campaign, sponsored by AIPO (Italian Association of Hospital Pulmonologists), AIRO (Italian Association of Radiotherapy and Clinical Oncology), Together Against Cancer Foundation and the Municipality of Florence, is made possible thanks to the unconditional contribution of AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Janssen and Royal Foundation.