Two bills tighten screws on illegal smoking in public

Placing ashtrays in no-smoking areas of restaurants and other eateries will be prohibited, according to the decision reached yesterday in the Finance Committee during deliberations of private bills submitted separately by MKs Gilad Erdan (Likud) and Yoel Hasson (Kadima). They would toughen enforcement of no smoking regulations in public places with a municipal mechanism established to do so.

Both bills substantially increase the fine for smoking in public places and for business owners who fail to enforce no-smoking regulations or to provide separate smoking and no-smoking areas. Erdan's bill also grants a claimant compensation of NIS 3,000 in the event of exposure to smoking in public places, without the obligation to prove any damages. The bill includes a clause specifying that the minister of health, after consultation with the minister of interior, will designate the number of inspectors each local authority is to appoint to enforce the law. According to the proposed legislation, the inspectors' sole responsibility is to be enforcement of no-smoking regulations.

Deputy Director General of the Health Ministry Yair Amikam told the committee that according to a survey conducted on behalf of the Health Ministry by the Dahaf Institute, 85 percent of the smoking public supports legislation against smoking in public places.

Sources in the treasury said the ministry did not intend to allocate additional human resources for this purpose, and noted it is inappropriate to legislate that the responsibility of proposed inspectors be limited solely to enforcement of smoking regulations.