No room for smoking

Ó THE JERUSALEM POST, SUNDAY, MAY 8, 2005
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HEALTH SCAN
by JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
 

     The Israel Cancer Association [ www.ica.org.il  ] and Hashulchan Gastronomic Media, publisher of the Al Hashulchan Gastronomic Monthly, have joined forces to college signatures for a petition to be presented to Health Minister Dan Naveh.
     The petition calls on him to ban smoking completely in restaurants, bars, cafes and hotels and other public places. The existing law bars smoking in public places but allows smoking – in closed, ventilated rooms frequently only by smokers.
     However, the law is not properly enforced, and many smokers lend their own liberal “interpretations” to it by smoking illegally on staircases and in other peripheral areas. The petition, available online (in Hebrew) at www.hashulchan.co.il and www.cancer.org.il has already been signed by hundreds of people.

     The organizers note that the trend worldwide is to bar smoking from all public places. For evidence, go to New York City in the winter and see the remaining smokers puffing outside skyscrapers after leaving their heated offices dozens of floors up; there are no smoking rooms in the buildings. Studies have shown that establishments that bar smoking actually gain customers.
     The latest survey has shown that about 23% of Israelis smoke. This includes 33% of men and 18% of women; 30% of Jewish men and 21% of Jewish women compared to 42% of Arab men and only 6% of Arab women.