Passive smoking falls sharply

The proportion of Swiss forced to breathe in other people’s smoke for more than seven hours a day fell to ten per cent in 2010, compared with 35 per cent in 2002.

The drop follows the introduction of a nationwide law on passive smoking which came into force in May 2010.

The Federal Health Office said on Monday that a poll conducted between October 2010 and January 2011 showed that the number of people exposed to smoke for less than one hour a day had risen from 25 per cent in 2009 to 42 per cent in 2010.

For the first time, the places where they are likely to encounter smoke are not restaurants and bars but discos and in their friends’ homes.

The poll shows that 79 per cent of those asked – 61 per cent of whom were smokers – supported the smoking ban in restaurants, bars and cafés.

Furthermore, 23 per cent of the smokers questioned said they had cut their consumption, and 48 per cent said they went outside to light up.

The Swiss survey on smoking has been carried out every three months since 2001.