Italian Health Minister BeatriceLorenzin on Monday was sanguine over impending legalization ofelectronic cigarettes in public areas, like restaurants andcinemas, where traditional cigarettes will continue to bebanned.

"Parliament is sovereign,"said Lorenzin regarding theItalian parliament's approval of an education decree thatcontained a passage updating regulations for e-cigarettes.

An amendment introduced by Culture Minister Giancarlo Galanof Silvio Berlusconi's People of Freedom (PdL) party struck aclause that would have banished e-cigarettes along withtraditional cigarettes from places like cafes, bars and trainstations.

The decree was passed into law on October 23, and will comeinto force when it is published in Italy's Official Gazette.

"The legal aspects affecting public health that we placedin (the measure) were not affected,"said Lorenzin at themargins of a cancer-research awareness event in Rome.

Lorenzin said smoking e-cigarettes remains banned inschools. Moreover,  consumers will need to be informed of theproper use of the device and the risk of dependency, as well asthe nature of the substances contained in the liquid e-cigarette
refills.

"Now we also have to see what will happen in Europe, butwe have conducted a big battle to prevent e-cigarettes frombeing equated with medicine,"said Lorenzin.

The mayor of Rome - a transplant surgeon - saide-cigarettes did not produce second-hand smoke or otherdangerous emissions for others. 

Using e-cigarettes is "not smoking but vaporising. Inother words, it is like using an aerosol inside a cinema,"Ignazio Marino told Radio 24 Ore on Monday.

Marino said he did not favor e-cigarettes in public, butits system of nicotine delivery is "without combustion, thusthere is a reduction in the risk of cancer...but not of cardiovascular disease"Enditem