According to the 2018 annual report from the Ministry of Health released on Wednesday, every fifth Israeli is a smoker, smoking at least ten cigarettes daily.
The report shows that the percentage of smokers aged 21 years and over in the Israeli population stands at 19.8%, a very slight decrease compared with 2017, when the percentage of smokers was 20.5%, and compared to 2016, the percentage of smokers was 21.6%.
46% of the smokers reported smoking more than ten cigarettes a day, while among male smokers the figure was 53%. One-fifth of the smokers said they began to smoke under the age of 15.
The percentage of smokers among the Arab population is higher than the Jewish population. For example, the percentage of Arab smokers aged 21 to 34 is 1.5 times higher than the percentage of smokers in the Jewish population. In the 54+ age group, the percentage of Arab smokers is twice as high as the percentage of Jewish smokers.
Jewish men start smoking on average at 18.4 years, compared to Arab men who start smoking on average at 19.9 years.
Deputy Minister Yaakov Litzman said in response to the report: “The Ministry of Health’s efforts in the fight against smoking have shown mixed results over the years. After several years in which the rate of smoking was fairly stable, we can see the beginning of a downward trend and continued improvement compared to previous years. The Ministry of Health continued and will continue its activities to improve and protect the public against secondhand smoke and to limit the marketing efforts of the tobacco industry through a variety of means.”
The Association of Public Health Physicians, the Medical Association for Prevention & Termination of Smoking of the Israel Medical Association, the Israel Cancer Association and the Smoking Elimination Program, said in response: “In the past year, the State of Israel has promoted the fight against smoking, expanded the law to ban smoking in public places and upgraded the law to restrict the advertising and marketing of addictive and fatal products. After a determined struggle by the anti-smoking organizations, preliminary data show that this step is starting to influence and encourage smokers to rehab.
“We expect and hope for a reduction in smoking rates in the next few years, which means preventing Israelis from dying of lung cancer, throat cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart attacks and stroke, and a significant reduction in the number of teenagers entering the smoking cycle. Much work remains to be done here in Israel, especially among the younger generation”.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
oy lanu!!! the fact that the others are worse is no nechamah
starting at 18.4 nonsense more like 15.4
hatzad hashoveh shedarkan lehazik
rav miller zatzl said that even if a father does smoke he can and should be mechanech his kids that its a terrible habit to start and its not hypocritical, a father wants better for his children
i dont have the nisayon ,
There aren’t a lot of activities that chareidi people are “allowed” to do. They can’t play ball e.g.
Why is it that so many chareidim, yeshivaleit and chasidim smoke, it’s nothing but a chilul Hashem befarhesyo, particularly for the under 40’s who would have started when the dangers were absolutely clear to all and choshuveh rabbonim had written strongly against smoking.
The headline doesn’t reflect what the article says. If 19.8% of the those over 21 are smokers and 46% of the smokers smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day, then just over 9% of the of those over 21 smoke more than 10 cigarettes a day (46% of 19.8% is 9.108%).
FYI, there’s no halachis chilul Hashem in smoking. Even doing straight and simple aveiros isn’t a true chilul Hashem. Don’t confuse it with other types of “bad press.”
Also, the main main culprits here are Arabs, TBH. But it used to be in Israel it was POSHUT that you carried around a lighter for everyone who needed “Esh? Esh?” Now, it’s hard to fine. That’s good news.
Unfortunately there’s almost no anti-smoking publicity in the Charedi society. A blind eye is turned to smoking even though it is now-days a clear Issur. Living in a charedi neighbourhood in Jerusalem, my family are exposed to 2nd hand smoke on a daily basis when walking around the neighbourhood.
More needs to be done to educate the society on the danger and damage smokers do to themselves, their children, and others.
@aymdock _unfortunately_ the main culprits are not Arabs, I suffer on a regular basis from Jewish from smokers much more ethan form Arab smokers.