BMJ 2006;333:218 (29 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7561.218
Jump to full article: British Medical Journal, 2006-07-28
Author: Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
Intro: 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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