The Swiss voted on Sunday to tighten their notoriously lax tobacco laws by banning virtually all advertising of the products, with nearly 57 percent of voters and 16 of Switzerland’s 26 cantons backing the near-total ban. Al Jazeera reports that Switzerland lags far behind most wealthy nations in restricting tobacco advertising – a situation widely blamed on substantial lobbying by some of the world’s biggest tobacco companies with headquarters in the country. Opponents of the initiative, which include the Swiss government and parliament, however argue that the ban goes too far, saying “Today we are talking about cigarettes, but we will soon be talking about alcohol and meat”.
