http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/country/israel.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3863351,00.html http://tobacco.org/news/298547.html Force spots smugglers from both sides of border meeting south of Mount Harif, orders them to halt. When suspects begin to flee into Israel, troops open fire, seriously injuring Egyptian civilian who dies of wounds in hospital Ynetnews Egypt Israel Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/HealthAndSci-Tech/Health/Article.aspx?id=171088 http://tobacco.org/news/298511.html Kadima MK Yoel Hasson tabled a private member’s bill on Monday that, if passed, would be the world’s first law barring the sale of tobacco products containing addictive substances such as nicotine, or other substances, such as menthol and ammonia, that make nicotine more addictive, The Jerusalem Post has learned. If tobacco were not addictive, the smoking rate would quickly decline (from the present 23 percent). People already addicted to nicotine who felt the need for it would be able to get it through other “delivery systems,” such as nicotine chewing gum, skin patches and other forms, but not through tobacco, the bill states. Hasson’s bill is due to go to the Ministerial Committee on Legislation to get the go-ahead. The Health Ministry has reportedly not yet discussed the issue and whether to endorse it. The idea of tobacco without addictive or addiction-promoting substances was first proposed in 2000 by Amos Hausner Jerusalem Post Israel Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:00:00 GMT http://www.nzherald.co.nz/health/news/article.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10628360 http://tobacco.org/news/297468.html Cigarette smokers have lower IQs than non-smokers and the more a person smokes, the lower his IQ, according to a new international study. The study of more than 20,000 Israeli military recruits found young men who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day or more had IQ scores that were 7.5 points lower than non-smokers. The research has been backed by Auckland University expert Dr Marewa Glover, who said it was proof of a successful campaign by the tobacco industry to target those with lower IQs by using devices such as cartoons and free samples. "They already know that people with poorer cognitive functioning, and populations where that is concentrated, are going to be more vulnerable to marketing tactics that are not dependent upon literacy skills," said Dr Glover, the director of the Centre of Tobacco Control Research at the university. . . . Dr Glover said known risk factors for smoking in New Zealand included whether a person's parents smoked, their socio-economic status and whether they were Maori or Pacific Islanders. New Zealand Herald New Zealand Israel Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61M3UQ20100223 http://tobacco.org/news/297400.html Cigarette smokers have lower IQs than non-smokers, and the more a person smokes, the lower their IQ, a study in over 20,000 Israeli military recruits suggests. Young men who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day or more had IQ scores 7.5 points lower than non-smokers, Dr. Mark Weiser of Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer and his colleagues found. "Adolescents with poorer IQ scores might be targeted for programs designed to prevent smoking," they conclude in the journal Addiction. . . . To better understand the smoking-IQ relationship, the researchers looked at 20,211 18-year-old men recruited into the Israeli military. The group did not include anyone with major mental health problems, because these individuals are disqualified from military service. Reuters Israel Tue, 23 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.5tjt.com/news/read.asp?Id=5824 http://tobacco.org/news/296402.html Smoking affects your cardiac health both before and after a major event like a heart attack. But how much? And does cutting back instead of quitting have a positive effect as well? Rabbi Shlomo Riskin of Efrat, Israel may have recently requested that his whole city make smoking illegal, but the evidence for immediate effects of quitting has not existed in the Jewish State - until now. There are definitive answers in a new study from Tel Aviv University, the largest and most comprehensive of its kind. The research found that quitting smoking after a heart attack has about the same positive effect as other major interventions such as lipid-lowering agents like statins or more invasive procedures. Study results were reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. 5 Towns Jewish Times mfrankel@facsar.com (5TJT Staff) Israel Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life/health-fitness/health/Smoking-increases-cardiac-health/articleshow/5530298.cms http://tobacco.org/news/296401.html Smoking cessation significantly increases cardiac health later in life, says a new study from Tel Aviv University. The research found that quitting smoking after a heart attack has about the same positive effect as other major interventions such as lipid-lowering agents like statins or more invasive procedures. “It’s really the most broad and eye-opening study of its kind. Smoking really decreases your life expectancy after a heart attack. Those who have never smoked have a 43 percent lower risk of succumbing after a heart attack, compared to the persistent smoker,” said Dr. Yariv Gerber of TAU’s Sackler School of Medicine. However, even those with a history of smoking can see their risk sharply decline once they give up the habit. “We found that people who quit smoking after their first heart attack had a 37 percent lower risk of dying from another, compared to those who continued to smoke,” Dr. Gerber said. In the study, the researchers looked at data that covered more than 1,500 patients The Times of India Israel Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/LocalIsrael/TelAvivAndCenter/Article.aspx?id=166424 http://tobacco.org/news/296396.html Steve and his friends are participants in a growing problematic trend. Despite stricter anti-smoking laws which were passed in 2007 forbidding smoking in public closed places - such as pubs and bars, restaurants, cafes and nightclubs - public smoking in Tel Aviv, and Israel at large, continues often as though the law ceased to exist. "It hasn't been effective at all," Hanoch said of the law. "In New York, no-smoking laws actually made a difference because violating them pulls a place's liquor license, and without a liquor license bars don't work. Here, they don't do that because they just want the money; they don't want to close the place." "It's in [the authorities'] best interest to let it happen again and again and again," he continued. "I think here it's an issue of being a moneymaker instead of actually being concerned with anybody's health." And that's only if a fine is actually given, which according to frequent public smoker Hanoch, rarely happens. Jerusalem Post Israel Sat, 23 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/HealthAndSci-Tech/Health/Article.aspx?id=167231 http://tobacco.org/news/296395.html Although smoking in entertainment and other public places is illegal, the level of dangerous particulate matter from tobacco smoke in Tel Aviv pubs and bars is five times higher than recommended and endangers the health of both customers and employees. This was discovered by Dr. Leah Rosen of ’s health promotion department and is to be published on Friday in the European Journal of Public Health. She said that enforcement of the law by municipal inspectors is not effective because their numbers are small. It is ironic that many local authorities are not enthusiastic about enforcing no-smoking laws, as they pocket the fines and use them for other purposes. Another reason for the poor enforcement, Rosen said, is that owners of pubs and bars inform one another when inspectors are on their way, meaning that when they arrive, none of the customers or employees are caught smoking. Jerusalem Post Israel Fri, 29 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/HealthAndSci-Tech/Health/Article.aspx?id=167606 http://tobacco.org/news/296381.html One of the world’s leading anti-tobacco fighters, Prof. Gregory Connolly of the Harvard School of Public Health, advises Israel to abandon its policy of optional “smoking rooms” in public places and to completely bar lighting up in such locations instead. In an exclusive interview with The Jerusalem Post on Monday during his second visit to the country, the director of Harvard’s division of public health practice and a member of the scientific advisory board to the US Food and Drug Administration on the regulation of tobacco products said that the existence of smoking rooms leads around the world to violations of no-smoking laws. Just a few days ago, Tel Aviv University public health expert Dr. Leah Rosen published a study showing that owners of Tel Aviv bars and pubs consistently fail to enforce laws when they inform one another that municipal inspectors are on the prowl for violators; although full of smoke, few of them are caught with lit cigarettes in the public areas. Bars, Connolly said, function as “schools for smoking” by introducing young people to the dangerous practice. He was here to speak at a TAU symposium organized by Rosen on how to significantly reduce the current Israeli adult smoking rate of 24 percent. Jerusalem Post Israel Wed, 03 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=166802 http://tobacco.org/news/296380.html Halacha prohibits the sale of cigarettes, Chief Rabbis of Efrat Shlomo Riskin and Shimon Golan have announced, adding that they will attempt to enforce the prohibition through persuasion. A notice was published in the local Efraton weekly over the weekend that the two rabbis had issued a prohibition against the sale of cigarettes. The two rabbis said that anyone who sold cigarettes transgressed two halachic prohibitions. The first was aiding and abetting a fellow Jew in the sin of endangering one's life. The second was standing idly by while a fellow Jew endangered his or herself. "Cigarettes are treif," Riskin told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. "If I could, I would revoke the kashrut supervision certificate of every store or restaurant that sold cigarettes. But the law does not permit me to." Jerusalem Post Israel Tue, 26 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=166935 http://tobacco.org/news/296379.html The efforts of Efrat's chief rabbis, Shlomo Riskin and Shimon Golan, to persuade every store in their community to stop selling cigarettes will not receive the support of the powerful chairman of the Knesset Law Committe and resident of Efrat, MK David Rotem. The rabbis said that anyone who sold cigarettes transgressed the halachic prohibition of aiding and abetting a fellow Jew in the sin of endangering one's life and standing idly by while a fellow Jew endangered him or herself. Riskin said that since he cannot legally revoke the kashrut supervision certificate of every store or restaurant that sold cigarettes, he would try to use the power of persuasion. Rotem, who is religious and a smoker, said the rabbis' efforts were counter-productive. He said that if no cigarettes were sold in Efrat, he and other smokers would merely purchase them in nearby Jerusalem. "This is not what will persuade people to quit smoking," Rotem said. Jerusalem Post Israel Wed, 27 Jan 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1137298.html http://tobacco.org/news/294565.html Drugs that help smokers quit the habit are among the approximately 80 new medications and medical treatments included in the list of state-subsidized drugs for 2010, the selection committee recommended yesterday. . . . Selection committee chairman Professor Rafael Beyar commended the committee's decision to introduce anti-smoking drugs into the subsidized services. "The process of getting over smoking is of public importance and can save many more years of sickness than an expensive oncological medicine," he said. The 80 new drugs are estimated at NIS 353 million, NIS 3 million more than the budget at the committee's disposal. Selection committee chairman Professor Rafael Beyar commended the committee's decision to introduce anti-smoking drugs into the subsidized services. "The process of getting over smoking is of public importance and can save many more years of sickness than an expensive oncological medicine," he said. The 80 new drugs are estimated at NIS 353 million, NIS 3 million more than the budget at the committee's disposal. Ha'aretz Newspaper/Magazine dan.even@haaretz.co.il (Dan Even) Israel Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1261364483734&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull http://tobacco.org/news/294563.html Smokers who want to kick the habit will for the first time soon be able to attend cessation courses covered by their health funds, as well as ask their doctor for subsidized medications that help overcome nicotine addiction. List for 2010 basket of health services announced These will be among the 80 drugs and technologies, worth NIS 350 million, chosen by the public committee responsible for recommending medical technologies for inclusion in the 210 health basket The choices were selected from hundreds of products costing a total of NIS 2 billion. Jerusalem Post jsiegel@jpost.com (JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH) Israel Thu, 24 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1258624597072&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull http://tobacco.org/news/293751.html Israel would be in violation of an international agreement barring smoking in all public areas if the Knesset abrogates an existing law, thus allowing unlimited smoking in "neighborhood pubs" and removing responsibility for enforcement from owners of public establishments. So said Amos Hausner, chairman of the Israel Council for the Prevention of Smoking, about legislative plans of Likud MK Ophir Akunis, a self-declared nonsmoker who said Thursday he is concerned about rights of smokers and wanted to "liberalize the rules for a certain sector." He claimed that in New York City, there is a loophole that allows puffing on cigarettes if a prohibition would cause serious economic damage to owners. Akunis, a 36-year-old former adviser to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and currently the powerful chairman of the Knesset Economics Committee, said he wanted to roll back the amendment passed last year that requires owners of premises to enforce non-smoking laws, as well as to insert an exemption in a previous law that bars smoking in all pubs. "Small neighborhood bars," he insisted, should let young people light up. Jerusalem Post jsiegel@jpost.com (JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH) Israel Fri, 20 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1259831457287&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull http://tobacco.org/news/293668.html To smoke, or not to smoke - onstage? That is the question for the Haifa District Court, which on Thursday morning received a request to certify as a class-action suit - reportedly the first in the world - a complaint filed against a theater for instructing an actress to smoke as part of her role. The request was filed by lawyer Amos Hausner, chairman of the National Council for the Prevention of Smoking, on behalf of fellow lawyer and frequent theatergoer Einav Avrahami, who objected to famous actress Orly Zilberschatz-Banai smoking for about half an hour onstage in the play. Highly praised by Israeli critics, the play is based on the work of American playwright David Mamet. Titled in Hebrew Hamakom Mimenu Bati, it tells the story of an American Jewish man named Bobby Gold who abandons his wife and his home to return to the old Jewish neighborhood where he was raised. Zilberschatz-Banai plays his long-suffering sister and delivers a long monologue during which she smokes. The venue is the Haifa Municipal Theater hall - owned by the municipality - which by law is responsible for enforcing no-smoking laws in the city. This is a conflict of interest, argued Hausner in his application. . . . Hausner asked the court in this case to set the compensation for damages to the theater audience at NIS 1,000 each, or a total of NIS 4 million, as he calculated that some 3,800 spectators have seen or will see the play before the end of its run. Avrahami said she was fighting for a principle - that smoking in theaters has been illegal since 1983 and that the health not only of the audience but also of the actors who performed several times a day was at risk as they would be exposed to toxins. . . . Three years ago, the Supreme Court awarded NIS 1,000 to one woman exposed to smoke at Focaccetta, a Jerusalem restaurant sued by concerned citizen Irit Shemesh, who was also represented by Hausner. Since then, much higher awards have been handed down by courts, including one in which the lawsuit was certified as a class action against the smoke-filled Tel Aviv club Bella Shlomkins. Avrahami, who attended the play in the middle of October, argued that the director could easily have given Zilberschatz-Banai a harmless and smokeless substitute. But the theater - a small one with only 158 seats - refused to relent . . . Hausner declared that the play's text presents a character as smoking, it did not require the actress or actor to actually light up a cigarette. Jerusalem Post jsiegel@jpost.com (JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH) Israel Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:00:00 GMT