Before the latest anti-smoking law went into effect last November, the amount of particulate matter from smoking in Israeli cafés, bars and pubs was nearly 20 times that permitted in indoor air, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and 10 times the levels measured at such establishments in countries where bans on smoking in public places are well enforced.
These findings were reported by Dr. Laura (Leah) Rosen and colleagues at the Tel Aviv University School of Public Health and Dr. Greg Connolly of the Harvard School of Public Health, who are now monitoring levels of particulate matter since the law took effect. Rosen told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that she hopes to have data to present by December. Both studies have been funded through Harvard by FAMRI, the Flight Attendant Medical Research Institute.
In November 2007, a law initiated by Likud MK Gilad Erdan made owners of premises responsible for enforcing no-smoking laws in workplaces and public places. Proprietors are supposed to tell smokers on their property to put out their cigarettes, cigars, or pipes and alert the local authority or municipality, as well as make sure that their employees do not smoke on the premises. Fines for smoking are hefty.
Rosen and colleagues tested in a total of 34 bars, pubs and cafes in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv the levels of small respirable suspended particles (RSPs), which are atmospheric markers of secondhand smoke, before passage of the law. They found that bars and pubs had higher levels than cafés.
"Whether the new law will successfully promote clean air in Israeli bars, pubs, cafés and other indoor places is yet to be seen," they wrote in their article published in the just-published August/September issue of IMAJ, the Israel Medical Association Journal.
Rosen said that while her post-enactment data is not yet available, she has the feeling that some municipalities and local authorities around Israel are significantly better than others, even though all are obligated to enforce the law.
Attorney Amos Hausner, who heads the Israel Council for the Prevention of Smoking, agreed and noted that some municipalities have said openly that they don't intend to enforce the 10-month-old no-smoking law, while others are enthusiastically doing so, since all the fines are collected by the municipalities and local authorities. "It's a bonanza for them, so when a mayor or local council head doesn't enforce the law, it seems to be due to improper motives."
It's impossible to file lawsuits against all the municipalities that fail to enforce the law properly, thus as a last resort, Hausner intends to take the Israel Police - which has the ultimate responsibility for enforcing the law but claims to be "too busy" and has left the job to the municipalities and local authorities - to the High Court of Justice.
"If the police were to invest in no-smoking-law enforcement just one percent of the effort they devote to accident prevention, there would be no illegal smoking in workplaces and public places," he declared.
