http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/country/israel.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/the-next-cigarette-1.410879 http://tobacco.org/news/333228.html Three days after I quit, while I was still convinced that the desired personality change had finally taken place and that soon, perhaps, I would begin to eat spelt regularly and maybe even do aerobic exercises - I thus decided, out of the infinite goodness of my heart, to share with you all the good things that happened to me after that six-hour workshop, and I did in fact write a column in that spirit. Seven days later, when the column was published, I was flooded with encouraging and amazed reactions. . . . And there are also all the habits that accompany smoking and are hard to abandon. To this day, a month and a week after I've stopped smoking again, I find myself putting my hand into my bag in search of a cigarette, albeit less frequently. And still, the workshop's main and most convincing message is that if you don't treat the cigarette as something wonderful, which means that giving it up is supposed to be difficult or to create a sense of deprivation; and if we understand that a cigarette is a cigarette is a cigarette, a sophisticated product that was created to enrich the tobacco companies and the governments that benefit by encouraging addiction among consumers, who pay high taxes - we also avoid the sense of misery we are convinced we will feel if we only try to quit. So I stopped smoking over a month ago and I didn't feel any particular misery, as opposed to all the previous times when I quit. I don't feel that I've denied myself something and that therefore I deserve immediate compensation in the guise of a cigarette, or at least a Krembo treat. But have I changed from being a person who has quit smoking to being a non-smoker? Don't make me laugh. Ha'aretz Newspaper/Magazine Israel Fri, 03 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000720894&fid=1725 http://tobacco.org/news/333144.html The Knesset Finance Committee is due to decide within weeks to halve the duty-free allowance for cigarettes to one carton per person instead of two. An estimate in today's discussion of the proposal said that it would generate NIS 300 million in tax revenues a year. Cigarette makers, importers, and duty-free concessionaires told the Finance Committee that they oppose the proposal. An activist from the Association for Democratic Progress disrupted the meeting, calling for the removal of paid lobbyists, and was ejected from the room. Globes/Israel's Business Arena support@globes.co.il Israel Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.moodiereport.com/document.php?c_id=6&doc_id=29877 http://tobacco.org/news/333142.html The Israeli Ministry of Finance has proposed halving the duty free tobacco allowance from two cartons of cigarettes per person to one - a move that the industry in the country is fighting. The Treasury (Finance Ministry) estimated that the move would bring in an additional ILS300 million (US$80 million) per year, a figure that the trade, and in particular Tel Aviv Ben Gurion Airport duty free concessionaire James Richardson, disputes. The move concerns inbound allowances and it could have a particular impact on the retailer's 'collect on return' business, where passengers purchase before they leave the country and pick up when they come home. The proposal is currently before the Knesset (Parliament) Finance Committee. The Moodie Report Israel Thu, 02 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.pr-inside.com/new-market-research-report-smokeless-tobacco-r3006810.htm http://tobacco.org/news/333065.html Euromonitor International's Smokeless Tobacco in Israel report offers a comprehensive guide to the size and shape of the market at a national level. It provides the latest retail sales data 2007-2011, allowing you to identify the sectors driving growth. It identifies the leading companies, the leading brands and offers strategic analysis of key factors influencing the market - be the new legislative, distribution or pricing issues. Forecasts to 2016 illustrate how the market is set to change. PR Insider Israel Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000720894 http://tobacco.org/news/333014.html The Knesset Finance Committee is due to decide within weeks to halve the duty-free allowance for cigarettes to one carton per person instead of two. An estimate in today's discussion of the proposal said that it would generate NIS 300 million in tax revenues a year. Cigarette makers, importers, and duty-free concessionaires told the Finance Committee that they oppose the proposal. An activist from the Association for Democratic Progress disrupted the meeting, calling for the removal of paid lobbyists, and was ejected from the room. Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz has already signed the directive, but the Finance Committee has not yet approved it. Finance Committee chairman MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) wants to hear the position of the Ministry of Health on cigarettes' health hazards first. He also wants the Ministry of Transport to state the financial impact of the proposal on the Airport Authority's revenue, and the importers' position about the strengthening of the market in contraband. Globes/Israel's Business Arena support@globes.co.il Israel Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/NationalNews/Article.aspx?id=255807&R=R2 http://tobacco.org/news/332977.html Rambam Medical Center in Haifa has become “the first government hospital” in the country to prohibit voluntarily the sale of tobacco products in shops, kiosks and vending machines on its whole campus. It has thus altruistically decided to forgo annual income of hundreds of thousands of shekels from commissions and rentals, it said. Originally, Rambam said on Monday it was the “first hospital in the country” to bar the sale of tobacco on its campus, but when The Jerusalem Post found at least two other medical centers – Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek and Hadassah University Medical Center on Mount Scopus – that have not allowed the sale of tobacco for years, even decades, Rambam changed its statement to “the first state hospital.” The management decision, which took effect this month, resulted from a matter of principle – of promoting good health, said Rambam Director-General Rafael Beyar, himself an interventional cardiologist. Beyar, who initiated the move, said a medical institution that daily witnesses the damage caused by cigarettes to health had to “make a clear statement” against smoking. Jerusalem Post Israel Tue, 31 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=253623 http://tobacco.org/news/332021.html In Gelmon’s private practice in Vancouver, the cancers of 93 percent of the women she sees do not stem from mutations, she says, but rather from hormones, obesity and even smoking if one starts as a teen. “In Israel, about 10% [of cases] are inherited,” she says. Thus the added risk is not very significant. “We are gradually learning more about inherited factors that cause higher risk.” Jerusalem Post Israel Sun, 15 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/275277/20120103/jerusalemites-gave-smoking-pipes-gifts-lovers-during.htm http://tobacco.org/news/331370.html A romantic inscription found on the ceramic mouthpiece of a tobacco pipe discovered during an ongoing archaeological excavation in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem suggests the pipe was probably given as a gift to a lover. The Arabic inscription reads: "Heart is language for the lover", according to a statement released, on Sunday, by Dr. Kate Rafael of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Dr. Rafael is leading the excavation of the site. The literal translation of the caption, however, means: "Love is language for the lovers". The pipe dates back to the Ottoman period, between the 16th and the 19th centuries, when clay pipes were very common and were mostly used for smoking tobacco. The Arabic inscription on the clay pipe reads: "Heart is language for the lover." Photo Credit: IAA Smoking was quite popular among both men and women in Jerusalem during the Ottoman rule. International Business Times Israel Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:00:00 GMT http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111219005597/en/Yissum-Introduces-Technology-Manufacturing-Anti-Malaria-Drug-Tobacco http://tobacco.org/news/331058.html bating malaria is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals described in the United Nations Millennium Declaration signed by all UN members at the year 2000. A key intervention to control malaria is prompt and effective treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapies. Artemisinin is a natural compound from Artemisia annua (sweet wormwood) plants, but low-cost artemisinin-based drugs are lacking because of the high cost of obtaining the natural or chemically synthesized drug. Despite extensive efforts invested in the last decade in metabolic engineering of the drug in both microbial and heterologous plant systems, production of artemisinin itself was never achieved. "Professor Vainstein's technology provides, for the first time, the opportunity for manufacturing affordable artemisinin by using tobacco plants. We hope that this invention will eventually help control this prevalent disease, for the benefit of many millions of people around the globe, and in particular in the developing world." Now, Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Ltd., the technology transfer arm of the University of Jerusalem, introduces a novel method allowing artemisinin production in a heterologous (that is, other than A. annua) plant system, such as tobacco. The method was developed by Professor Alexander Vainstein from the Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment at the Hebrew University, and sponsored by a fellowship of Mr. Isaac Kaye. It was published under the title Generation of the Potent Anti-Malarial Drug Artemisinin in Tobacco in the latest issue of the prestigious publication Nature Biotechnology. Business Wire tsipih@yissum.co.il Israel Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=250006 http://tobacco.org/news/330910.html Although tobacco in the form of cigarettes is generally recognized as being a killer of millions, the plant has been used by Hebrew University researchers to produce an effective anti-malaria drug. A genetically engineered form of artemisinin, a natural compound that produces large quantities of the anti-malaria drug - was announced Sunday by the Yissum Research Development Company – the Hebrew University of Jerusalem’s technology transfer company. The biosynthesis method - a novel way of producing Artemisia annua, which is naturally produced by sweet wormwood plants - was developed by Prof. Alexander Vainstein and the research was published as a letter in the latest issue of the journal Nature Biotechnology. Combating malaria is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals described in the UN Millennium Declaration signed by all UN members 11 years ago. An important way to control the deadly parasitic disease that affects mostly the Third World is prompt and effective treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapies. But low-cost artemisininbased drugs are in short supply because of the high cost of obtaining the natural or chemically synthesized drug. Despite extensive efforts made in the last decade in metabolic engineering of the drug in both microbial and heterologous plant systems, no one has been able to produce artemisinin itself. Jerusalem Post Israel Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=250473 http://tobacco.org/news/330874.html As of Wednesday, December 21, it is against the law to install cigarette vending machines within 1,000 meters of schools and other educational institutions. Starting on January 1, 2014, the use of tobacco vending machines will be completely barred. The delay for the complete prohibition resulted from objections by vending machine companies and others, who said they would lose money and needed time to make up for their losses, although proponents of an immediate ban said vending machines for cigarettes could easily be changed to sell anything from stamps and envelopes at the post office to healthy foods and toys. Jerusalem Post Israel Thu, 22 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/Health/Article.aspx?id=250170 http://tobacco.org/news/330775.html Western Galilee Government Hospital in Nahariya has its own uniformed inspectors giving NIS 1,000 fines to people they catch smoking in closed places on the campus. As municipal inspectors around the country generally are not very successful, or enthusiastic, about collecting smoking fines, hospitals are permitted to do this themselves and keep the money for the institution’s benefit. The medical center said on Monday that its inspectors, all hospital employees, have been specially trained by the Israel Police and the courts. The District Health Office recently empowered 15 hospital inspectors to give NIS 1,000 fines, usually following oral and written warnings. Jerusalem Post Israel Tue, 20 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT http://www.managingip.com/Article/2928253/Latest-News-Magazine/Supreme-Court-reverses-EveEva-trade-mark-decision.html http://tobacco.org/news/328229.html In May 2010, then deputy commissioner of Patents and Trademarks Noah Shalev Shlomovits ruled that the cigarette brand Eva, produced by Bulgarian manufacturer Aktsionerno Droujestvo Bulgartabac is not confusingly similar to the Eve brand of cigarettes produced by Philip Morris, allowing Eva to be registered as a trade mark. Shlomovits ruled that the fact that the marks had different graphic elements was less important than the sound of the mark since cigarettes are bought by requesting a brand from a salesperson. He went on to rule that since the Bulgarian cigarette is pronounced Eva (rhyming with never), it is very different from Eve (which rhymes with weave). Philip Morris appealed the decision to the Supreme Court . . . In its decision the Israel Supreme Court cited Article 11 of the Trademark Ordinance 1972, as preventing issuing confusingly similar marks. After acknowledging that an appeal is not supposed to be a retrial, the judges noted that in this case, it is not witnesses who are being reconsidered but the nature of objects. They explained that analysing the likelihood of confusion by a pedestrian application of the triple test is insufficient, and that as well as analysis, judges should synthesise the evidence and come to a decision based on the total picture. With this perspective, the judges ruled that the marks are indeed confusingly similar and overturned the deputy commissioner's ruling, cancelling the Eva mark. Managing Intellectual Property Magazine info@israel-patents.co.il Israel Wed, 02 Nov 2011 04:00:00 GMT http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/147440 http://tobacco.org/news/325717.html Cigarette advertising - in nearly any form or media - will be completely banned, if the Health Ministry has its way. The Ministry on Wednesday published a "memorandum of law" (tazkir chok) - a document distributed to the public by a government office in advance of a formal law proposal - which would "generally prohibit the advertisement of tobacco products to reduce public exposure to advertising for those products that cause death, disease and disability." The law is necessary, the memorandum says, "to protect children and young people the effects of advertising, which produces a positive and attractive image of smoking." Direct advertising of cigarette products in electronic media has long been banned in Israel, as it is in much of the western world. The new law, however, would take that ban and extend it to far beyond a ban on TV and radio ads - or even newspaper ads, which would also be banned. Arutz Sheva Israel Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:00:00 GMT http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/147440 http://tobacco.org/news/325682.html Cigarette advertising - in nearly any form or media - will be completely banned, if the Health Ministry has its way. The Ministry on Wednesday published a "memorandum of law" (tazkir chok) - a document distributed to the public by a government office in advance of a formal law proposal - which would "generally prohibit the advertisement of tobacco products to reduce public exposure to advertising for those products that cause death, disease and disability." The law is necessary, the memorandum says, "to protect children and young people the effects of advertising, which produces a positive and attractive image of smoking." Direct advertising of cigarette products in electronic media has long been banned in Israel, as it is in much of the western world. The new law, however, would take that ban and extend it to far beyond a ban on TV and radio ads - or even newspaper ads, which would also be banned. Cigarette manufacturers will be banned from sponsoring festivals, public parties, or other events; ads will be permitted on the internet or via e-mail, but only to recipients who signed up to receive such messages, or on sites that are associated with smokers. Ads can also appear inside stores that only sell cigarettes and smoking accessories (ie, "smoke shops" and not grocery stores); the ads may not be visible outside the store. Arutz Sheva Israel Fri, 02 Sep 2011 04:00:00 GMT