In Switzerland, comparatively little wind has blown in the face of the tobacco industry so far.

But that will change now.

On Sunday, the majority of Swiss voted to tighten existing restrictions on tobacco advertising.

According to projections, the popular initiative "Yes to protect children and young people from tobacco advertising" was accepted with 57 percent of the votes.

John Knight

Correspondent for politics and economy in Switzerland.

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The initiative calls for tobacco advertising to be banned wherever children and young people can see it, for example in newspapers, on billboards, on the Internet, in cinemas, in kiosks or at events.

The same rules should apply to electronic cigarettes.

According to the text of the initiative, advertising that is only aimed at adults or that is located in places to which minors have no access is still permitted.

From the point of view of the opponents, this amounts to a de facto advertising ban.

Every fourth person in Switzerland smokes

The majority of the government and parliament had rejected the initiative, which was supported by doctors, health organizations and youth and sports associations, and presented a gentler counter-proposal for the protection of minors.

Now, however, they have to cast the votes of the voters into correspondingly stricter laws.

In Switzerland every fourth person smokes.

According to surveys, half of all smokers today started before the age of 18.

Around 9,500 people die prematurely from addiction every year.

The costs of smoking for the public health system and the economy (loss of work) are estimated at 4 to 5 billion Swiss francs per year.

Nevertheless, Switzerland has so far restricted tobacco advertising much less than most countries in Europe.

The tobacco tax is also comparatively low.

Switzerland is the only European country that has not ratified the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which came into force in 2005.

All of this is likely to be related to the economic importance of the tobacco industry in Switzerland and its strong lobbying power in Parliament in Bern.

Initiative "Fundamental Rights for Primates" fails

Three of the world's largest tobacco companies are based in the Confederation: Philipp Morris International (PMI), British American Tobacco (BAT) and Japan Tobacco International (JTI).

The companies employ several thousand people and operate highly automated factories in which they produce more than 30 billion cigarettes a year.

Most of that goes abroad.

The tobacco multinationals benefit from the fact that Switzerland has not adopted the European Union's Tobacco Directive, which came into force in 2014.

This is directed, among other things, against the production of particularly strong tobacco products.

Cigarettes with emission levels above 10 milligrams of tar, 1 milligram of nicotine and 10 milligrams of carbon monoxide may no longer be manufactured in the EU.

Although the sale of such strong tobacco products is also prohibited in Switzerland, their manufacture and subsequent export to countries with less strict consumption bans are still permitted.

This will not change even after the acceptance of the advertising ban initiative.

On Sunday, the Swiss voted on three more factual proposals.

The plans of the government and parliament to support private media houses directly and indirectly with up to 151 million Swiss francs annually were rejected by 54 percent.

The abolition of part of the so-called stamp duty, which Swiss companies have to pay when raising capital, did not find a majority either.

The initiative for a radical ban on animal experiments was clearly sunk.

In the canton of Basel-Stadt, the “Basic rights for primates” initiative failed.