Jump to full article: Jerusalem Post, 2009-06-15
Author: JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Intro: Israeli anti-tobacco activists are divided over whether the government should initiate a law to regulate the manufacture and marketing of tobacco products. Such a law is about to be signed by US President Barack Obama - 45 years after the US Surgeon General officially declared that smoking was dangerous to health. . . .
Amos Hausner, Israel's leading smoke-free advocate, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that the US legislation was "very controversial" and that he had "mixed feelings about it."
"The danger to health is inherent to tobacco products. But if there is regulation by the authorities, smokers could think they're not so bad," he explained.
He added, though, that if Israel wanted to implement a similar policy, " we don't need the US law, because since 1993, Israel has had pharmaceutical regulations that give the health minister the power to issue regulations regarding consumer products that endanger health - and cigarettes are included. The health minister can demand changes by the manufacturer and even prohibit sale." . . .
The ministry executive briefly discussed the US law during its weekly Sunday morning meeting. It has not yet released its official policy. But the ministry fears that the Treasury would not give it funding for a unit to supervise and regulate tobacco products, even if a law to this effect were passed.
Dr. Lea Rosen, a former Health Ministry public health official who now does research on tobacco cessation at Tel Aviv University's School of Public Health, told the Post that in general, she would favor such a law here.
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