The Knesset has officially endorsed a bill necessitating the incorporation of graphic images on smoking product packaging, notably cigarette packs, to underscore the perilous health implications linked with smoking. This measure, designed to curb advertising and curtail the promotion of tobacco and smoking-related items, garnered unanimous support without any opposing or abstaining votes.
Nevertheless, the legislation lacks a concrete timeline for execution, deferring the decision regarding the depiction of distressing images portraying smoking-related hazards to the Health Minister’s discretion. Comparable laws have been instituted in numerous countries globally, raising uncertainty about Israel’s adherence to this legal mandate.
The newly passed law mandates the inclusion of images depicting the adverse effects of smoking on smoking product packaging. Violations of this directive will be deemed as criminal offenses. The Health Minister, subject to approval from the Knesset Economic Committee, is bestowed with the authority to delineate regulations specifying the selection, size, design, and frequency of presentation of these images, as well as their alignment with warnings and their positioning on various packaging formats.
Certain exemptions are permitted under the legislation. For example, the Health Minister may prescribe distinct regulations for different categories of smoking products and stipulate that only specific items necessitate the display of warning images.
The accompanying explanatory notes elucidate that the objective of the law is to curtail the advertising and marketing of tobacco and smoking products, thereby diminishing public exposure, particularly among youth and former smokers. Its overarching aim is to mitigate the health hazards associated with smoking and dissuade prospective smokers from initiating the habit.
Several months earlier, the Health Ministry divulged its strategic approach to addressing the prevalence of electronic cigarettes. The proposed plan entails a spectrum of measures, encompassing elevating the legal age for purchasing electronic cigarettes to 21, restricting the assortment of available flavors and constituents of the product, and imposing taxes on the devices and their corresponding refills.
{Matzav.com Israel}
If the “Health” Department were honest they would add graphic images on all vaccines that they are hazardous to human health.
Bunch of baloney. The murder shots which they are still PROMOTING are worse than smoking. It’s part of the ” smoke screens” to pretend they care about our health.
Why not instead pass a law that every Charedi who smokes must serve in army and every chiloni who smokes exempts one serious yeshiva learner from army service?