Tobacco.org

20 years for man who murdered over cigarette 

Two years after he stabbed a man to death on a Tel Aviv beach for refusing to give him a cigarette, Gili Shmila was sentenced to no less than 20 years in jail Monday, the maximum sentence for his crime.

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• Two bills tighten screws on illegal smoking in public 

Placing ashtrays in no-smoking areas of restaurants and other eateries will be prohibited, according to the decision reached yesterday in the Finance Committee during deliberations of private bills submitted separately by MKs Gilad Erdan (Likud) and Yoel Hasson (Kadima). They would toughen enforcement of no smoking regulations in public places with a municipal mechanism established to do so.

Both bills substantially increase the fine for smoking in public places and for business owners who fail to enforce no-smoking regulations or to provide separate smoking and no-smoking areas. Erdan's bill also grants a claimant compensation of NIS 3,000 in the event of exposure to smoking in public places, without the obligation to prove any damages.

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• Ben-Yizri vows to restrict youngsters' access to cigarette vending machines 

Health Minister Ya'acov Ben-Yizri will soon present a list of places - such as in the vicinity of schools, cinemas and other places frequented by children and teenagers - where cigarette vending machines may not be installed, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

There are some 650 vending machines selling cigarettes around the country, and none of the machines "demands" to see the purchaser's identity card to check whether he or she is 18 or over. . . .

The Gil Pensioners Party MK, who has been in the ministry since the spring and has been smoking for six decades, has not so far declared that he wants to outlaw cigarette vending machines, even though the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to which Israel is both a signatory and ratifier states that vending machines must be outlawed in each participating country - so far 140 ratifiers out of 192 signatories. Eighty percent of the world's population live in these 140 countries, but the US, which has a very strong tobacco lobby, has not ratified the FCTC.

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• Anti-smoking expert will try to persuade Israelis to quit  

The average Israeli doesn't like to get advice about anything from foreigners - and the same is usually true of government offices. But the Health Ministry's Healthy Israel 2020 project on preventing disease and promoting good health - headed by Dr. Leah Rosen and Dr. Eli Rosenberg - is keen on learning from everyone.

Aware that tobacco is the leading cause of preventible death - killing 10,000 Israelis a year - and that the smoking rate has remained steady at about 25% of the population despite strict (but often unenforced) no-smoking laws, they recently invited Prof. Paul McDonald, a smoking prevention expert at Ontario's University of Waterloo, to counsel senior ministry officials and outside experts. Although it was his first visit to Israel and he had to be briefed about the Israeli situation, including legislation and enforcement, McDonald quickly found his bearings and discussed his ideas in an interview with The Jerusalem Post.

Learning that Health Minister Ya'acov Ben-Yizri, 79, has been smoking two or three packs a day for six decades but has vowed not to do it in public, McDonald said: "I would tell him it's never too late to stop. Even at his age, it can add months or years to his life and improve his quality of life. It's important to set an example for children and young adults, especially as health minister." Hearing that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is a longtime cigar smoker but tries not to get caught by a camera, the Canadian expert said it was "unfortunate, but at least he and the health minister don't do it in public." . . .

Having heard that Israel has for years, even decades, had increasingly strict anti-smoking laws on the books but that they are widely disregarded, McDonald said: "I am learning more and more about local enforcement. Israelis don't understand the importance of the issue. If they think it is unlikely they will be punished for violating the law, they will ignore it. In Ireland, for example, when tobacco was outlawed in smoky pubs, the government made it clear it would enforce the law, and educated the public on why this was important.

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CollPlant raises $1.5m 

CollPlant Ltd., which has developed human proteins from tobacco plants, has raised $1.5 million at a company value of $8 million before money. The round was led by a company that could become a future strategic partner, as well as Teva chairman Eli Hurvitz’s Pontifax Ltd.

Biomedix Incubator Ltd. (TASE:BMDX) subsidiary Meytav Technological Enterprises Innovation Center Ltd. owns 47.3% of CollPlant. Biomedix owns 75% of Meytav. Pontifax parter and Biomedix director Ran Nusbaum recently said that CollPlant was one of Biomedix’s most promising portfolio companies.

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• CollPlant's Tobacco 

Israeli company CollPlant Ltd., that has developed a transgenic tobacco plant expressing some human genes, has secured a venture capital infusion to further its technology, according to Globes [online]. Transgenic tobacco plants have been the talk of the industry for a while now, and have been displayed for the last 3 years on Wired's NextFest as promising manufacturers of vaccines. This is the first time we see a company come up with a plant that produces human collagen:

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• Anti-smoking chief wants nicotine stubbed out 

The chairman of the Israel Council for the Prevention of Smoking has recommended that nicotine - which is the main component that makes cigarettes addictive - be eliminated from cigarettes completely.

Amos Hausner, the country's leading advocate for smoking prevention, was commenting to The Jerusalem Post on a report released Wednesday by the Massachusetts health department that the level of nicotine that smokers consume per cigarette, regardless of brand, has risen 10 percent in the past six years. Higher nicotine levels make it harder for smokers to kick the habit and easier for new smokers - especially children and teenagers - to become addicted. . . .

"Why force the consumer to buy a package with an inseparable mix of lethal toxins and a highly addictive drug called nicotine, when the consumer has no ability to remove the addictive component?" Hausner said, adding that tobacco company documents show that for 35 years, they have had the capability of completely eliminating nicotine from tobacco compounds.

"Manufacturers should be required to separate these two so that those who are already addicted can take nicotine in the form of sprays, chewing gum and patches rather than together with the deadly components in cigarettes. Those who haven't started to smoke will not be forced to become addicted when they succumb to powerful tobacco advertisements and marketing techniques. Nicotine is regarded by the US Department of Health and Human Services to be as addictive as heroin and cocaine," he said.

The Jerusalem lawyer quoted the Clalit Health Services lawsuit - in which he represents the health fund against major tobacco companies seeking a reimbursement of NIS 7.6 billion for its smoking members - that many cigarette additives such as sugar, chocolate, licorice and vanilla are mixed into the tobacco to cover up the bitter taste of nicotine.

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• Meeting Mr. Ben-Yizri  

If cabinet ministers were chosen by public tender, the Gil Pensioners' Party's Ya'acov Ben-Yizri would be an unlikely candidate for health minister: He doesn't speak English, has only a high school education, is not computer literate, smokes like a chimney and will celebrate his 79th birthday in a few weeks. . . .

From time to time, especially when I press him about his smoking, he says "Judy! Judy! Judy!," reminding me of a Cary Grant impersonator . . .

Tobacco is a sensitive issue. Ben-Yizri, who has smoked 60 cigarettes a day (except Shabbat) since he was 18, says today he has the time and legal space to smoke only a third as many - and then only on the balcony of his office. Impressively, there are no ashtrays or tobacco odors in the room and - after allowing himself to be photographed smoking as a newly minted minister - Ben-Yizri has sworn he will not do so in public.

He admits he had not heard of the Gillon Committee, appointed seven years ago by then-health minister Shlomo Benizri and headed by Judge Alon Gillon to consider labeling tobacco and nicotine "dangerous drugs." Ben-Yizri is willing to consider backing legislation that will bar tobacco advertising in newspapers and magazines. He may also back the idea that proprietors of restaurants, malls and other places frequented by the public be fined if there is illegal smoking on their premises, and not only the smoker himself. But he prefers "education" about the evils of smoking to privatizing the job of enforcement so that enforcers will have the incentive to hand out fines.

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• Court acts on Israel’s poorly enforced ban on workplace smoking 

Israel’s High Court of Justice has set an international precedent in enforcing a World Health Organization convention intended to protect people from exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke.

In what is believed to be the first major national legal application of provisions of the WHO’s framework convention on tobacco control, Justice Elyakim Rubinstein allowed an appeal by Irit Shemesh, a pregnant woman who was exposed to secondhand smoke in a Jerusalem restaurant despite Israel’s strict law against smoking in workplaces, which is poorly enforced by local authorities.

He argued that, in addition to criminal enforcement, there should be a mechanism of civil enforcement by a “caring citizen” who sues for compensation from those who own or manage a facility used by the public but who make no effort to enforce bans against smoking in those places. . . .

Meanwhile Israel’s National Institute for Health Policy Research has adopted a recommendation that all tobacco manufacturers and importers be forced to pay a large sum of money in advance to cover the medical costs of consumers of their products.

The chairman of the Israel Council for the Preve

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• Briefs: Israeli Justice sets global precedent for anti-smoking rule enforcement 

The High Court of Israel set an international precedent in enforcing regulations that protect people from exposure to secondhand smoke. It is believed to be the first high legal application of the provisions of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, an international treaty.

Justice Eli Rubinstein allowed the appeal of Irit Shemesh, a pregnant woman who was exposed to secondhand smoke in a Jerusalem restaurant. He held that, in addition to criminal enforcement, there should be recognition for a mechanism of civil enforcement by a "caring citizen" who sues for compensation from those who manage or own a public place but take no steps against smoking in it, contrary to Israeli law.

The local Small Claims Court awarded Mrs. Shemesh only a nominal compensation from the restaurant's owners, and the District Court did not intervene. But Judge Rubinstein, on a special leave to appeal which he granted, increased the compensation tenfold, to 1000 Shekels plus legal fees and expenses, totalling 2,500 Shekels (about $550). Justice Rubinsten said that all countries who ratified the FCTC have agreed that second hand smoke causes "death, disability and illness" and these countries assumed responsibility for the protection of their inhabitants from exposure to it. He also cited Jewish sources and rulings on the dangers of smoking, and second hand smoke in particular.

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Why do young women smoke? II. Role of traumatic life experience, psychological characteristics and serotonergic genes 

arette smoking is a complex behavioral phenotype to which environmental, psychological and genetic factors contribute. The purpose of this study was to investigate these multifactorial effects with a specific focus on young women and on genes that encode serotonin (5-HT) receptors and the 5-HT transporter. A case–control sample of female Israeli college students provided comprehensive background data and detail . . .

Further studies should consider the interactive contribution of life events and relevant gene variants to cigarette smoking and other complex behavioral traits.

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PAGE SIX: UMA, STAR OF ISRAEL 

UMA Thurman is trying, but failing, to keep a low profile on a four-day trip to Jerusalem. . . .

She was also spotted swimming under a waterfall at the En Gedi nature preserve and at a public beach on the Dead Sea, leaning on a blue van and smoking a cigarette.

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LETTER: Dubious poster boy 

Sir, - It is commendable that someone is at the age of 79 still contributing to society and, moreover, in government. But how can anyone who has been smoking three packs of cigarettes a day for the past 60 years be the national spokesperson for eliminating the habit, especially among our youth? ("Health minister targets youth smokers," May 31.)

Our foundation for the future is our children, and they need someone to look up to. We need an individual who can go to the schools, speak out regarding the ills of smoking, and set an example of "health through fitness."

The old adage of "Do as I say, not as I do" doesn't work anymore.

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LETTER: Lucky man 

Benjamin Bright-Fishbein should consider himself the luckiest man in the world ("'Post' intern released unharmed by Aksa Martyrs Brigades," June 12).

This guy risked his life just to drink coffee and smoke a nargila water pipe in Nablus? Doesn't he know that Nablus, as The Jerusalem Post has so many times reported, is considered in Israel to be the capital of Palestinian terror?

If Bright-Fishbein hadn't had his US passport with him he would very likely have been killed. Surely this prank reveals naivete to the point of idiocy, and beyond?

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Tobacco tycoons with investments round the world  

The Sampoerna family was ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the 15 richest families in the Far East.

Aside from the fact that the family's purchase of 20 percent of Harel Insurance is another foreign investment in Israel, this deal draws attention because of the nationality of the investors.

The family resides in Indonesia, a country with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations. Furthermore, it is the largest Muslim country in the world, with a population of 250 million.

However, the Christian Sampoerna family has its roots in China. Those involved in the deal did not express any concern whatsoever at the parties' nationality, and said that all moves had been coordinated with local authorities. . . .

The family has never visited Israel. All of their meetings with Yair Hamburger were held in London.

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