Voters in Switzerland have rejected a total ban on smoking in enclosed public places at a referendum.
Although Geneva voted slightly in favour, results from the country’s other 25 cantons showed a majority of voters rejected a full ban.
Hotels, restaurants and bars are allowed rooms for smokers but critics say workers’ health is at risk.
Restrictions introduced two years ago were watered down after lobbying from the catering trade and tobacco firms.
In some cantons, more than 70% of voters rejected the ban, according to Geneva newspaper La Tribune de Geneve. Geneva itself bucked the trend by supporting the ban by 52% to 48%.
Geneva and seven other cantons have already imposed their own comprehensive bans on indoor smoking in places of employment while the remaining, smaller cantons have been less restrictive.
The result was welcomed by the Swiss Business Federation which called it “heartening”.
“The initiative would have imposed more costs on restaurateurs who have already made considerable investments to protect non-smokers,” it said in a statement.
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Indonesian Zoo Isolates Orangutan from Visitors to Stop Her from Smoking Their Lit Cigarettes
Bah; she’s 15, surely she’s old enough to make those kind of decisions for herself. 
FILE – In this Friday, July 6, 2012 file photo, Tori, a 15-year-old orangutan smokes a cigarette inside her cage at Satwa Taru Jurug zoo in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia. Indonesian zookeepers have moved a female orangutan with a bad habit of smoking away from visitors who regularly throw lit cigarettes into her cage. Tori has been smoking cigarettes for a decade, mimicking human behavior by holding cigarettes casually between her fingers while visitors watch and photograph her puffing away and flicking ashes on the ground. (AP Photo)
