Swiss voters appear to have rejected a total ban on smoking in enclosed public places at a referendum.
Hotels, restaurants and bars are currently allowed to have rooms for smokers but critics say this harms the health of those who work in them.
Restrictions introduced two years ago were watered down after lobbying from the catering trade and tobacco firms.
Swiss voters appear to have rejected a total ban on smoking in enclosed public places at a referendum
With returns from nearly all 26 cantons counted, the full ban seemed to have been rejected convincingly.
Zurich newspaper Neue Zuercher Zeitung suggested voters had rejected the ban by nearly two-thirds.
In some cantons, more than 70% of voters rejected the ban, according to Geneva newspaper La Tribune de Geneve. Geneva itself bucked the trend by supporting the ban by 52% to 48%.
Geneva and seven other cantons have already imposed their own comprehensive bans on indoor smoking in places of employment while the remaining, smaller cantons have been less restrictive.
Jean-Charles Rielle, a doctor and member of the committee behind the proposal, told AFP news agency before the vote that they wanted to clear up the confusion.
“In the cantons where these laws [banning smoking rooms] are already in effect, we saw immediately… a 20% drop in hospitalization due to cardiovascular incidents, heart attacks and these kinds of problems,” he said.
However, Laurent Terlinchamp, president of Geneva’s association of cafe owners, restaurateurs and hoteliers, said the proposed measures were extreme.
“In Geneva, where the law came in two years ago, we were told that a new clientele would start to come back to establishments,” he said.
“But it’s not the case today because profits are down 10% to 30% depending on the type of business.”
La Tribune de Geneve suggests voters rejected a full ban because they did not want to force the smaller cantons into changing their local laws, and because of resentment at perceived state interference in people’s lives.
Swiss citizens are going to the polls to vote on a proposal to ban smoking completely in enclosed public places.
Hotels, restaurants and bars are currently allowed to have rooms for smokers but critics say this harms the health of those who work in them.
Restrictions introduced two years ago were watered down after lobbying from the catering trade and tobacco firms.
Opinion polls show the Swiss – who smoke more than their neighbors – are likely to reject the proposal.
Switzerland is tackling the issue of passive smoking far later than its neighbors Germany, Italy and France, which long ago banned smoking in public places.
Swiss citizens are going to the polls to vote on a proposal to ban smoking completely in enclosed public places
The restrictions finally introduced in Switzerland two years ago were a compromise.
Special smoking rooms were allowed in many public places following lobbying from the hotel and catering trade as well as major tobacco companies whose European headquarters are based in Switzerland.
Critics say the restrictions have also been applied unevenly across Switzerland’s 26 cantons.
Eight cantons, including Geneva, have a total ban on indoor smoking in places of employment – like restaurants and bars – and public spaces – like hospitals – but the remaining 18 cantons apply the law less restrictively.
Jean-Charles Rielle, a doctor and member of the committee behind the proposal, told AFP news agency that they wanted to clear up the confusion.
“In the cantons where these laws [banning smoking rooms] are already in effect, we saw immediately… a 20% drop in hospitalization due to cardiovascular incidents, heart attacks and these kinds of problems,” he said.
Laurent Terlinchamp, president of Geneva’s association of cafe owners, restaurateurs and hoteliers, says the proposed measures are extreme.
“In Geneva, where the law came in two years ago, we were told that a new clientele would start to come back to establishments,” he said.
“But it’s not the case today because profits are down 10% to 30% depending on the type of business.”
The latest opinion poll showed 52% of those questioned opposed the new initiative against 41% in favor and 7% undecided.
An appeals court in Washington has ruled that US government cannot force tobacco firms to put large graphic health warnings on cigarette packages.
It said the government’s plan undermined free speech in America.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had wanted to put nine pictures of dead and diseased smokers to convey the dangers of cigarettes.
However, tobacco companies had argued that the images went beyond factual information and into anti-smoking advocacy.
The ruling comes as a number of other countries have ordered similar pictures to be placed on all cigarette packets.
An appeals court in Washington has ruled that US government cannot force tobacco firms to put large graphic health warnings on cigarette packages
Australia has gone a step further, banning even tobacco company logos from the cartons.
The US Court of Appeals affirmed an earlier lower court ruling in a 2-1 decision.
It said the case raised “novel questions about the scope of the government’s authority to force the manufacturer of a product to go beyond making purely factual and accurate commercial disclosures and undermine its own economic interest”.
The court said that in this case it was “by making every single pack of cigarettes in the country a mini billboard for the government’s anti-smoking message”.
It added that the FDA “has not provided a shred of evidence” that the images would directly advance its policy aimed at reducing the number of smokers in America.
The verdict was welcomed by tobacco companies, with Lorrilard Tobacco’s describing it as “a significant vindication of First Amendment principles”.
The FDA has so far made no public comment on whether it intends to appeal against the ruling in the US Supreme Court.
