Stub out public smoking, Portugal health minister

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Portugal’s health minister proposed on Wednesday a ban on smoking in public places, including restaurants and bars, joining other European countries trying to introduce similar bans.

The measure, proposed on National No Smoking Day, will go to the cabinet of Prime Minister Pedro Santana Lopes by the end of this month for a vote, said a spokeswoman for Health Minister Luis Filipe Pereira.

If it is approved, it would take effect next year, she said.

"It has become necessary to better protect the health of nonsmokers from involuntary exposure to passive smoke,” the ministry said in a statement.

Portugal has one of the lowest rates of smoking in the European Union at less than one quarter of the population, according to Eurostat, the bloc’s statistics agency.

Pereira’s proposal comes a day after Britain announced plans to ban smoking in most public places, including restaurants and bars that serve food.

Stricter laws also were enacted this year in Ireland, Norway and Sweden. Scotland has proposed banning smoking in public places, while Spain has proposed banning smoking in most work places but making it optional in bars and restaurants. 

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