It’s called democracy

Switzerland is behind the rest of Europe in the fight to crack down on smoking, according to a worldradio.ch story.

The story quotes the latest World Health Organization report analyzing the performance of its own MPOWER initiatives, which seek to assist in the country-level implementation of measures to reduce tobacco demand.

Switzerland isn’t fully included in the report because the country’s anti-tobacco measures don’t comply with WHO guidelines.

This should come as no surprise since Switzerland tends generally to take an independent line and has not signed up to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

Nevertheless, the report is said to “blame” Switzerland’s federal structure, saying there is little consistency between cantons in implementing anti-tobacco legislation.