Hard times for smokers

Already an ‘endangered species’ in the public realm, life will get even more difficult for smokers if Israel’s Health Minister Rabbi Yaakov Litzman has his way, according to a story by Dror Halavy for Hamodia.

Litzman is said to be seeking to impose more restrictions on smokers, including banning tobacco smoking from places where it is currently permitted, increasing taxes on cigarettes and other tobacco products, and imposing bigger fines on people who smoke where smoking is banned.

Smoking in public was banned nearly a decade ago, with smokers restricted to specific areas of restaurants, bus stations, places of entertainment, banks, malls and offices.

Under current rules, the proprietors of establishments that choose to allocate spaces for smokers must ensure that no second-hand smoke escapes to bother non-smokers.

Setting up such spaces is not mandatory, and many businesses and offices ban smoking on their premises altogether.

The new regulations proposed by Litzman would ban such smoking areas, and that ban would apply also to open-air venues, such as stadiums.

Smoking outdoors would be banned within 10 meters from the entrance to a building.

Under Litzman’s proposals, more inspectors would be hired to ensure that no smoking takes place in hospitals, or government and public institutions, and fines for violating smoking bans would be increased.

In addition, tobacco companies that advertise their products in newspapers or online (advertising in broadcast media was banned more than a decade ago) would be required to place public notices of the same size pointing out the dangers of smoking.

Also banned would be toys or food that resemble tobacco products (such as candy cigarettes or cigars), and companies would be banned from distributing free cigarettes.

Halavy’s story is at: http://hamodia.com/2017/07/23/new-rules-make-life-even-harder-smokers/.