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Action on Smoking and Health
A National Legal-Action Antismoking Organization Entirely Supported by Tax-Deductible Contributions
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Jerusalem Bans Sale of Tobacco to Minors and 'Light' Cigarettes [12/02-3]
Excerpts from: Tobacco sale to minors prohibited
By Judy Siegel-Itzkovich The Jerusalem Post [11/30/04]
The sale of cigarettes, hookahs and other tobacco products and equipment to
minors is now prohibited by law with a NIS 12,900 fine to those who are caught,
and the marketing of cigarettes labeled or promoted as "lite" or "low tar" or "low nicotine" is barred. However, Health Minister Dan Naveh, who presented these developments at a press conference on Tuesday, admitted that "enforcement is a weak link in Israel" and that he had no new ideas to ensure the observance of this and other anti-smoking laws, which are constantly violated.
Although the minister has the power to prohibit marketing of cigarettes to all ages via vending machines, Naveh said he did not intend to do so because of concern about "laws protecting freedom to make a living." But he said he is planning to prohibit the automatic machines from dispensing cigarettes near schools, discos and other places frequented by young people.
Naveh also presented new cigarette packets, 30 percent of their surface area now required to show one of a dozen different warnings in Hebrew and Arabic. They include the fact that smoking cigarettes causes impotence, stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, premature wrinkling and premature death; and that it endangers fetuses, is addictive and that tobacco contains 43 different carcinogenic substances.
The health minister said that when he took office 18 months ago, he set reducing the smoking rate as a "high priority." While it has remained stable in adults at around 24%, he conceded that it is rising in children and teenagers. Smoking causes the death of 10,000 Israels per year, many times more the toll of road accidents, war and terror combined.
Asked why he had not asked the Knesset to recognize tobacco as a "dangerous drug" that can be regulated or its sale even prohibited, which he did a few weeks ago to hagigat, the synthetic version of khat leaves that have made half a dozen youngsters ill but not killed them, Naveh said that "no other country in the world has done this. Reducing smoking is a gradual process," he added, "but I am in favor of more stringent measures."
The Israel Medical Association five years ago sought to have tobacco recognized as a "dangerous drug" and went to the High Court of Justice to achieve this, so that the ministry could control how much addictive nicotine and substances like chocolate or licorice is added to make it attractive to children.
But the suit was recently thrown out of court when the Public Committee for the Reduction of Smoking, appointed nearly five years ago by then-health minister Shlomo Benizri and asked to prepare recommendations on this matter within a year, has still not prepared and issued its report.
The chairman of the committee, Judge Alon Gillon, regularly asked for an extended deadline, saying he was "almost finished." Naveh said at the press conference that he felt "very uncomfortable" about the embarrassing delay, which has held up new anti-smoking measures. "I may myself call Judge Gillon or have my director-general do this and ask him about the report; then we may set a final deadline," he said.
Miri Ziv, director-general of the Israel Cancer Association, called for official Israeli ratification of the World Health Organization's Tobacco Control Agreement, which it merely approved in principle over a year ago. So far, some 35 countries around the world have ratified this first WHO treaty on public health, but Naveh said that various pieces of legislation are needed first before this can be accomplished here.
Ziv noted that 30% of all cancers are caused by smoking (either active or passive), compared to only one to five percent of cancers caused by (other) environmental pollution. Ziv said that the variety of warnings on tobacco products and printed media advertisements could make it more likely that addicted smokers pay attention to them, that is, if they don't believe they are "immune" to the likely health consequences.
Naveh noted that it was forbidden to sell "lite" cigarettes because there is "no healthful cigarette," nicotine and tar levels are not easily determined, and low levels of tar do not make them any less dangerous or addictive.
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