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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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