Tobacco.org

• TA pub target of planned NIS 20m. suit for illegal smoking 

Jerusalem lawyer and anti-tobacco activist Amos Hausner has asked the Central District Court to certify a NIS 20 million class-action suit against a north Tel Aviv pub and club, for failure to enforce no-smoking laws in the establishment.

The pub, Mandy's on Rehov Rokah, is named for Mandy Rice Davis, who was involved in the Profumo Affair that discredited the Conservative government of British prime minister Harold Macmillan in 1963, and subsequently converted to Judaism and settled in Israel.

Davis and her husband, Rafi Shauli, are not official owners of the pub, but they are involved in the business, according to Internet news reports. . . .

Hausner was prompted by complaints from a non-smoking couple named Eli and Gal who went to Mandy's to celebrate the anniversary of their meeting and were overwhelmed by smoke. The couple said all their attempts to get the staff to stop the smoking were fruitless.

Hausner then found 19 photos on the Internet used to promote the place. All the photos showed smokers and the lighting up of cigarettes throughout the pub, even though smoking in pubs is illegal except in completely separate and ventilated smoking rooms.

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Plaintiffs sue restaurant for NIS 7 million over 2nd hand smoke 

Plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the Focaccetta restaurant with the Jerusalem District Court on Sunday, claiming NIS 7 million in compensation for allowing its customers to smoke in breach of the law.

One of the complainants, Irit Shemesh, has already sued the restaurant for the same offense in the past and was awarded NIS 1,300.

In that incident's ruling, the Supreme Court said the restaurant was breaking the law by allowing its customers to smoke on its premises.

Despite the fine, the plaintiffs claim the restaurant owners have continued to ignore the law while diregarding customers' complaints. . . .

They claim that the Supreme Court ruling caused a precedent that lead to the fining of other restaurants of sums between NIS 1,000 and 4,000 for each person exposed to cigarette smoke.

As a result, they are asking each non-smoking customer that ate at the establishment between May and June 2007 be given a similar sum.

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• Taxmen smoke out cigarette counterfeiters  

Customs officials this week uncovered a gang suspected of manufacturing counterfeit cigarettes in the Kanot Industrial Zone near Gedera. The gang, whose members come from the center of the country, are suspected of manufacturing and selling millions of shekels worth of counterfeit cigarettes.

The Haifa Magistrate's Court extended the remand of three of the suspects for four days. The gang was uncovered by the tax authorities and Haifa's customs investigation department after an investigation lasting several months.

On Sunday the customs people raided the plant and discovered a production line for making counterfeit cigarettes; brands that were copied included Marlboro, Kent and Parliament.

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Prepare to quit or plan to die prematurely  

During a 90-minute interview with Harvard Prof. Nancy Rigotti in a Jerusalem cafe, not one customer lit a cigarette. This might be a matter of vague interest for a foreigner who hasn't visited Israel since she was a youngster 40 years ago - but not for Rigotti, a world expert on smoking prevention and cessation

Born in Rockport, Illinois and living in a Boston suburb, Rigotti teaches and does research at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health . . .

BUT EVEN though she was pleased to have a smokeless lunch with The Jerusalem Post, she was aware that illegal smoking is still common in many Israeli public places and that the laws - which preceded most of those in the US - are not well enforced. . . .

Another possibility is an anti-smoking vaccine. "Three or four companies are working on these, which produce an antibody too big to get through the brain-blood barrier and prevents the smoker from getting any 'enjoyment' from the nicotine in tobacco smoke. "But vaccines have to be tested carefully, especially for young people. It isn't known how long the antibodies last. In Europe, vaccines are being tested to prevent relapse in smokers who have already quit. Actual approval and sales are several years away."

But she doubts tobacco use will plunge to zero in the foreseeable future. "I'm not afraid of losing my job doing research on cessation. And if it does go to zero," she says with a smile, "I will always have my primary care practice."

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• Court authorizes NIS 7m. anti-smoking class action against club 

A district court judge has agreed for the first time to certify a class action suit - for NIS 7 million - against a dance club in Tel Aviv for failing to enforce no-smoking laws . . .

The precedent-setting case will be heard in a few months by judge Michal Nadav, who ruled that the law has to be enforced even in relatively small clubs, to protect the rights of nonsmokers and to deter violators.

The Bella Shlomkin's pub, located on Tel Aviv's Rehov Noah Mozes, could be subject to payment of NIS 1,000 to each of more than 6,000 nonsmoking customers who visited the place on Friday nights - when special events were held there for Russian speakers - between January and August 2008.

Lawyer Amos Hausner filed the suit on behalf of Mark Litvin and his wife Yelena . . .

At a preliminary hearing this week, David Assaf, who does not know the plaintiffs, testified that he was ejected from the club by manager Ron Fire after asking that the incessant smoking of customers be stopped.

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Health Scan: Israeli cancer research 'spectacular'  

The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) - founded in 1907 by 11 physicians and scientists interested in the then-rarely encountered disorder - now has 30,000 members around the world. A total of 380 researchers (half foreign and the rest Israeli) attended a four-day conference in Jerusalem.

The AACR's mission is to prevent and cure cancer through research, education, communication, the rapid dissemination of new findings, expanding the understanding of cancer etiology, diagnosis and treatment. It also helps produce a critical mass of young cancer researchers for the future workforce.

The association (www.aacr.org) publishes six peer-reviewed journals related to oncology, and holds conferences such as that held at the capital's Inbal Hotel with help from the Israel Cancer Association. Chief executive officer Margaret Foti says "great science was presented at the meeting, and interactions and collaborations resulted. We plan to meet here again in the fall of 2011." Two organizers of the Jerusalem event were Prof. Gideon Rehavi from Sheba Medical Center and the Weizmann Institute's Prof. Moshe Oren, an Israel Prize laureate.

She noted that the AACR - which raises funds from US government grants, foundations, advocacy groups, industry and membership fees - does not accept money from the tobacco industry and always checks beforehand if the hotels where it holds meetings have a financial interest in tobacco.

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• Smoking ban, shaky economy wallop Dutch bars  

He is not the only Dutch smoker deciding to stay home. Bars and cafes in the Netherlands are seeing revenues slump after the government introduced a smoking ban in July, shortly before the credit crisis took hold.

The double whammy is costing bars as much as 30 percent of their business, said Joris Prinssen of Royal Horeca Netherlands, a lobbying group representing 20,000 bar and restaurant owners.

Other countries, too, have been hit by the coinciding smoking bans and economic malaise.

Gerard Laloi, who heads a group that represents France's bar owners, said beer sales fell 12 percent in the first nine months of the year compared with the same period last year. France banned smoking in bars and restaurants on Jan. 1. . . .

In Israel and Cyprus smoking bans also are regularly flouted.

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Butler Turned To God To Kick Nicotine Habit 

Movie star Gerard Butler had an epiphany at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, Israel - but it wasn't enough to stop him smoking. . . .

Butler says, "I'm thinking, 'If this guy (Jesus) can die for mankind, the least I can do is quit smoking.

"I really felt an epiphany was happening. I even thought I saw a light around me. Four hours later, I bought a packet of Marlboro Reds. Who am I kidding? I need a cigarette."

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• Firm sued by ex-employee over asthma linked to smoking coworkers 

The first lawsuit to be filed against an employer whose failure to stop smokers apparently caused a non-smoking employee to contract asthma has been submitted to the Rehovot Magistrate's Court, with the plaintiff demanding NIS 707,500.

Avi Greenberg is a 31-year-old Shoham resident who worked for almost a year in logistics, distribution and service at Negev Ceramics Marketing in Rehovot. He is demanding this sum for permanent disability (of 20 percent); refusal of severance pay; medical devices he needs; a potentially shortened life span; lack of salary; suffering, restrictions and pain; and an objective medical expert's opinion.

He is being represented by lawyer Amos Hausner, the chairman of the National Council for the Prevention of Smoking, who said that if Greenberg wins the case, it will deter many employers from permitting blatant violations of the law preventing smoking at the workplace, other than in designated separate rooms.

Every time Greenberg went to work, he was exposed to "massive amounts of tobacco smoke" from two to eight heavy smokers

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• Stars of Hollywood's golden era were paid to promote smoking 

Top Hollywood stars in the 1930s and 1940s, among them Clark Gable, Spencer Tracey, Joan Crawford, John Wayne, Bette Davis, Betty Grable and Al Jolson, were paid by tobacco companies up to $75,000 a year (today's value) to promote specific brands of cigarettes, according to a study by US researchers published Thursday morning in the journal Tobacco Control.

The companies contracted with actors, actresses and singers and paid them what totaled millions of dollars to endorse the Lucky Strike, Old Gold, Chesterfield and Camel brands of cigarettes - and the performers did it willingly, even though it was already known that tobacco was harmful to health.

In all, almost 200 performers took part in the cigarette endorsements, including two-thirds of the top 50 box office Hollywood stars from the late 1930s through the 1940s. The continued presence of on-screen smoking in today's mainstream films is rooted in these "studio era" deals, according to study authors K.L. Lum, J.R. Polansky, R.K. Jackler and S.A. Glantz of the University of California at San Francisco and Stanford University. . . .

In return for the paid testimonials of their stars in cigarette ads, major studios benefited from nationwide print and radio ads for themselves and their movies in lucrative "crossover" deals, paid for by tobacco companies, the researchers maintain.

The studios with the most "crossover" deals were Paramount and Warner Bros . . .

This all took place even though in 1931, the precursor of the US Motion Picture Association of America had banned actor endorsements and on-screen product placement.

The researchers showed that the studios simply ignored the ban . . .

Amos Hausner, Israel's leading anti-smoking lawyer, commented that showing scenes of cigarette smoking has been a key strategy of tobacco companies to get children and youth hooked on smoking.

"Subliminal advertising is even worse, as it has even more power than obvious advertisements to get young people addicted to tobacco," he said.

Many popular Israeli films, as well as Golden Oldies from Hollywood that are rebroadcast here, are full of tobacco smoke, and some even show brand names, even though it is illegal to advertise smoking on TV.

Hausner, who in 1998 filed a NIS 7.6 billion lawsuit on behalf of Clalit Health Services against Israeli and foreign tobacco companies, included a whole chapter on how movies shown in Israel subliminally advertise cigarettes. The case has been awaiting a decision by the Supreme Court since 2005. . . .

The Israeli reality show on Channel 2, Big Brother, in which most of the residents of a villa cooped up for 100 days smoke, has elicited complaints

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• Smoky air in Israeli pubs, cafés worse than in countries with bans 

Before the latest anti-smoking law went into effect last November, the amount of particulate matter from smoking in Israeli cafés, bars and pubs was nearly 20 times that permitted in indoor air, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and 10 times the levels measured at such establishments in countries where bans on smoking in public places are well enforced.

These findings were reported by Dr. Laura (Leah) Rosen and colleagues at the Tel Aviv University School of Public Health and Dr. Greg Connolly of the Harvard School of Public Health, who are now monitoring levels of particulate matter since the law took effect. Rosen told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that she hopes to have data to present by December. Both studies have been funded through Harvard by FAMRI, the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute. . . .

"Whether the new law will successfully promote clean air in Israeli bars, pubs, cafés and other indoor places is yet to be seen," they wrote in their article published in the just-published August/September issue of IMAJ, the Israel Medical Association Journal.

Rosen said that while her post-enactment data is not yet available, she has the feeling that some municipalities and local authorities around Israel are significantly better than others, even though all are obligated to enforce the law.

Attorney Amos Hausner, who heads the Israel Council for the Prevention of Smoking, agreed and noted that some municipalities have said openly that they don't intend to enforce the 10-month-old no-smoking law . . .

It's impossible to file lawsuits against all the municipalities that fail to enforce the law properly, thus as a last resort, Hausner intends to take the Israel Police - which has the ultimate responsibility for enforcing the law but claims to be "too busy" and has left the job to the municipalities and local authorities - to the High Court of Justice.

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• In precedent, court rules smoker must pay damages 

The Tel Aviv Magistrates Court today set a precedent when it ruled that a person smoking in a public place must pay NIS 1,000 to a person harmed by the smoke. This is the first time that the smoker, rather than business that failed to enforce antismoking laws, was found liable for spreading passive smoke.

The judge wants to send a clear message to smokers. "Beyond the criminal sanctions to which a person is liable for breaking the antismoking laws, he will also be liable to civil sanctions, and the court will order proper compensation for these acts that harm other people's health." . . .

The complainant in the case, who suffers from chronic asthma, was a member at the Shape gym at Dizengoff Center in Tel Aviv. He claimed that an employee of the gym was smoking in front of the building in violation of the law . . .

Until two years ago, the Prevention of Smoking Law was in an ash heap. A year ago, the law was amended to impose large fines of thousands of shekels on smokers in public places and on businesses that allowed smoking on their premises. . . .

The judge ruled that the defendant was Dizengoff Center, because of its responsibility as the owner of a public space.

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Will smoke no longer get in our eyes?  

After helping make a difference in Tel Aviv, one clean-air activist is now concentrating efforts to prevent smoking in public places in Jerusalem.

Hadas Sella and her organization Avir Naki (Clean Air) created a complaint form that the general public can fill out and send to their municipality's Enforcement Department.

While Sella strives to keep people from smoking anywhere, at the very least the law to ban smoking in public places must be properly followed and respected, she says. "I don't want people to think the laws in this country are a joke."

Citizen-based enforcement of the smoking ban is not new, but Sella says that the Avir Naki complaint form has a new and effective component that allows signatories to declare their willingness to testify in court against the public place in question. The form is available on the organization's Web site: www.avir-naki.com

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• Halachic disqualifications 

Orthodox Jews who commit traffic violations or who smoke are just as ineligible to serve as witnesses in rabbinical courts or in Jewish weddings as pork-eating, Shabbat-desecrating secular Jews, according to a leading religious Zionist rabbi. . . .

In a halachic opinion made public ahead of a conference on road safety, Rabbi Re'em Hacohen, head of the Hesder Yeshiva in Otniel, near Hebron, said that reckless drivers and smokers show a callous disregard for human life - whether their own or others - and are therefore considered invalid witnesses. . . .

Only men are permitted to serve as witnesses according to Jewish law, but men who intentionally disregard Halacha are disqualified.

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Israeli police question prime minister again in investigation of possible corruption  

Israeli police questioned Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday for the fourth time in a corruption investigation that has brought about his political downfall. . . .

The most damaging inquiry focuses on American Jewish businessman Morris Talansky, 76, who testified he gave Olmert envelopes stuffed with tens of thousands of dollars before he became prime minister, in part to finance Olmert's lifestyle of expensive hotels and fat cigars.

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