The boxes with the collected signatures were piled up outside the parliament building before campaigners handed them in to the Federal Chancellery.
Keystone/Peter Schneider
Voters are likely to have the final say on a proposal to ban tobacco advertising targeting both minors and young adults in Switzerland.
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On Thursday, campaigners handed in more than 113,000 signatures collected (a minimum of 100,000 needed) over the past 18 months for a people’s initiative forcing a nationwide ballot on the issue.
Currently tobacco advertising is not allowed on radio and television. The proposal wants an absolute advertising ban in print media, online, posters, in cinemas and shops. It also aims at outlawing sponsoring by tobacco companies.
Latest official figures show about 27% of people over the age of 15 are smokers. Most of them took up the habit when they were teenagers, according to the campaignersExternal link.
They argue that parliament failed to pass necessary legal amendments in the past few years. The Senate is scheduled to debate a reform of the tobacco law again next week, with a view to eventually ratifying an accord of the World Health Organization accord on tobacco control.
Parliament is due to discuss the initiative before the government will set a date for a nationwide vote.
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Smoke Signals
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Swiss tobacco production is on the decline; only about 400 farmers still grow this labour-intensive crop. Most of them are in the Broye Valley stretching across cantons Vaud and Fribourg. Their production covers only a small share of the tobacco consumed in Switzerland. (Text and images, Thomas Kern/swissinfo.ch)
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