The law is aimed at protecting non-smokers in public spaces, including schools, hospitals, shopping malls, restaurants and cinemas.
It sets minimum standards and allows cantonal authorities to introduce stricter rules but also includes exemptions. Restaurants have the right to set up specially designated and well ventilated areas for smokers.
Restaurant and bar owners have claimed the ban infringes on personal freedom and restricts business interests.
“Certain opponents simply are not willing to accept the rule, because they fear that a preventive measure is sufficient and they could lose a business advantage,” said Interior Minister Pascal Couchepin at a news conference on Wednesday.
Eighteen of Switzerland’s 26 cantons have already introduced smoking bans.
An alliance of health groups is trying to force a nationwide vote in order to introduce tighter measures across the country.
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About half of the country’s 26 cantons already have rules regulating smoking in bars and restaurants, but proponents of the campaign say the country’s laws are too disjointed and do not go far enough. “We have a very peculiar situation in Switzerland,” Otto Piller, president of the Swiss Lung League, told swissinfo.ch on Monday. “The…
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The Swiss Lung League on Friday said it was disappointed with federal politicians, which it said had done little to protect non-smokers from the dangers of second-hand smoke. “They have failed to provide coherent and effective protection against passive smoking at the national level,” said the organisation’s managing director, Corinne Zosso. The association representing Switzerland’s…
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From the post-war era to the beginning of the 1970s, cigarette smuggling was one the most flourishing trades in the border area between the Italian-speaking Swiss canton of Ticino and Italy. Smugglers often trudged long distances over difficult terrain to escape the Italian tax police. (Photos: RDB/Schleiniger)
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