Health minister to present annual smoking report

Health Minister Ya'acov Ben-Yizri, a confirmed smoker for 60 years, will on Wednesday release his ministry's annual smoking report, as required by law. The previous report noted that 10,000 Israelis die of smoking-related causes each year -- many more than those killed in road accidents, war and terror attacks -- and that about 2,000 of them are non-smokers exposed to the tobacco smoke of others. Some 13,000 people around the world die from smoking each day and five million die in a single year. If the trend is not reversed, by 2020, the world death toll is likely to reach 8.4 million a year