At a meeting of the Knesset's Health Committee last week, Chairwoman Idit Silman pledged to pass a series of new anti-smoking bills that would raise the minimum smoking age to 21, require police to enforce anti-smoking laws, and change the status of apartment balconies to prevent neighbors from having to inhale secondhand smoke.
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At the meeting, Dr. Efrat Aflalo of the Health Ministry informed committee members that around 8,000 Israelis die from smoking each year, of whom 800 die as a result of exposure to secondhand smoke.
Roughly one-fifth of Israelis smoke, Aflalo said.
According to Blue and White MK Alon Tal, "There is a tremendous nuisance factor. When the hearings were about to take place, my cellphone was flooded with messages and requests and complaints from citizens whose houses literally stink because they have the bad fortune of living next to a smoker."
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When asked why people shouldn't be able to smoke on their own balcony, Tal said, "Your rights end where my nose begins."
"Smoking is not a neutral activity, it has grave implications for people around you. In the same way, we limit the kind of noise somebody can make from their house... if you go out on your balcony, and the smoke wafts up to your neighbors, then that is unacceptable," he said.
He noted that around 28% of young men who enlist in the army smoke, as do 35% of the Arab sector.
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
