Israel officials consider a ban on smoking in cars

Members of the Israeli government, Knesset are pushing to adopt a bill to prohibit smoking in cars in presence of minors.

A member of Knesset from Yisrael Beiteinu (a nationalist political party in Israel) Robert Ilatov, whose associate Yuri Shtern, also a member of the government, introduced the bill to ban smoking in vehicles a month before he passed away due to a malignant brain tumor two years ago, declared that the government should pass the bill to revere the memory of the late Knesset member.

Ilatov stated that he decided to introduce the bill to the Knesset after he read a research by Johns Hopkins where it is found that vehicles account for the highest second-hand smoke rates. He advised everybody to look through the study published in the August issue of the Tobacco Control journal.

It has been scientifically proven that adolescents are more affected by environmental tobacco smoke and its negative consequences to health.

Dr. Boaz Lev, a vice head of Israel Health Ministry admitted that he has been in favor of the legislation prohibiting smoking in cars in presence of children, however, he had considered the introduction of such a bill with the Public Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (representative of ultra-Orthodox political party, United Torah Judaism), who is responsible for introducing bills concerning public health

At the same time, Israel principal anti-tobacco attorney Amos Hausner, head of Smoking Prevention Council declared that lighting up in cars should be prohibited completely, regardless of the presence of adolescents in those vehicles, because it presents danger to the health of both passengers and driver due to higher probability of road accidents and the severe health complications related to the exposure to secondhand smoke and chemicals contained in the smoke.

Hausner mentioned that there is a legislation, although often flouted, prohibiting usage of mobile phones while driving the vehicle since it distracts drivers and increases chances of road accidents. He recalled that several years ago transport officials launched a campaign urging drivers to avoid smoking while being on the road for the same reasons as in case of mobile phones.

Although, many developed nations implemented strict restrictions on public smoking, banning puffing almost in all enclosed public areas, only a handful of countries has banned lighting up in vehicles in presence of kids.
However, in America, unintentional exposure to environmental tobacco smoke results in thousands of respiratory illnesses and other diseases among children annually.

In addition, the Associated Press reported that Malawi kids as young as 7-10 years old who work at tobacco plantations suffer from severe nicotine poisoning similar to smoking 50 cigarettes daily.

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We have all heard how bad tobacco products are for our health. Smoking is an addiction that is very difficult to quit, but there are proven techniques that help increase your chances of not only quitting smoking, but never smoking a cigarette again. One of the most effective treatments in helping people to finally stop smoking is the alternative method of hypnotherapy.

According to the American Heart Association, 47.1 million people smoke in the United States. Of men in the United States, 23.5% smoke and out of women in the United States, 18.1% smoke. The statistics are even higher when looking at the worldwide statistics of cigarette smokers.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are 4000 chemicals in cigarette smoke, 50 of which are known to cause cancer. According to WHO, half of the world’s population of children (700 million children) are exposed to tobacco smoke. The International Labour Organization estimates that 200,000 people around the world die from second-hand smoke at work. These statistics show that not only is it important for an individual to quit smoking, but it is also important that they quit for the health of those around them as well.

Smoking is a physical and mental addiction. People become used to the feeling they get from a cigarette. They get used to having a cigarette in their hand and it occupies a great deal of time throughout their day; smokers become used to having an oral fixation with cigarettes. These are all physical aspects of their habit. The mental addiction can be more difficult to overcome. The actual addiction is mental and there is very little someone can do physically to help overcome the mental addiction to cigarettes.

Moses (1987) performed research on treating smoking with hypnotherapy. The researcher points out that smoking deals with habit, addiction, and willpower. All three of these aspects are difficult to treat alone, let alone all together, but hypnosis has shown to be effective in treating the habit, addiction, and one’s willpower to quit. The suggestions used in this study were to get smokers to change the way they viewed smoking and also to become more aware of the negative health effects smoking was doing to their body and overall health. Hypnosis was used to target the smokers’ habit, addiction, and willpower to effectively help them quit smoking. Results of the study showed that using hypnosis suggestions was very beneficial in helping people abstain from smoking tobacco.

Smoking has many negative effects on ones physical and mental health as well as the health of those around smokers. Quitting smoking has so many positive influences on one’s health and a positive economic impact. It is important for people to look into alternative methods of quitting smoking. Hypnosis generally requires only a few sessions to help people quit smoking in the long-term having a huge positive impact on a person’s life.