 Hi friends and subscribers, welcome back to my YouTube channel, this is Daniel Rosil. Today I thought it would be worthwhile to take a look at the incidence of smoking in Israel. A report came out today showing that Israelis are consuming more alcohol, smoking more, working out less, and using more prescription sleeping aids, all as a result of increased levels of stress since the October 7th massacre and the ensuing war with Gaza. Rewater rates of tobacco use like in Israel generally speaking, and how do Israeli laws designed to prevent second hand smoking look like compared to the rest of the world? According to data from 2014, 19.8% of Israelis aged 21 and over are smokers, 27.3% of Israeli men smoke and 12.6% of women. More Arabs than Jews smoke with the smoking rate being 26.3% in the Arab population and 18.4% in the Jewish one. Less detailed figures from a 2020 survey show that the incidence of smoking in the population at large remained at about 20%. This level remains above the OECD average. Unfortunately, the use of electronic cigarettes and flavored tobacco has led to a spike in the incidence of smoking in Israel. In total 8,000 Israelis die from tobacco related illnesses every year. The Israeli Cancer Association, or ICA, is one of the main advocates for tighter access control to tobacco products in Israel. It helps promotion specialist Dana Frost told the Times of Israel that underage users were managing to access tobacco products despite it being illegal and that the bright coloring and flavor of smokeless tobacco products were particularly attractive for this demographic. The association said that much better enforcement is required. Another area in which Israeli tobacco controls falter behind international standards are in regard to second hand smoke exposure. Despite it being illegal, where I live in Jerusalem, there are quite a number of bars in which bartenders and patrons can routinely be seen lighting up in shared indoor spaces. Israeli second hand smoke legislation permits the operation of indoor smoking rooms despite the fact that these designated smoking locations are rarely, if ever, hermetically sealed from other spaces. And here's one more shocking statistic. Israel is a densely populated country and most Israelis live in apartments rather than detached dwellings. According to a 2023 study, every second household in Israel suffers from second hand smoke exposure due to their neighbor's smoking habits, and I'm included in that figure. The research also showed however that only a quarter of those affected households complained about unwanted exposure to their smoking neighbors or housing committees. Following the report, a petition was submitted to the Supreme Court against government ministries for not taking action to prevent public harm from the infiltration of passive smoke from neighbors who smoke on balconies, windows, inside homes, and residential yards. The bigger news about smoking in Israel however is probably this. With levels of smoking on the decline in many developed countries throughout the world, Israel seemed doomed to stubbornly hover around the 20% level. Anti-tobacco advocates say their greater efforts on multiple fronts are needed to get this number into decline. Thanks for watching today's video, and for more videos about life in Israel and Jerusalem, please subscribe to this YouTube channel.