Smoking out the Israeli tobacco companies

July 14, 2011 - 3:46 PM by

A vintage ad for Dubek cigarettes

There have been great inroads in Israel in recent years in curbing secondary tobacco smoke from closing in on innocent victims.

I remember only four or five years when cigarette smoking was commonplace in the country’s malls and a few years before that on busses. Today, nobody would think about smoking there. And even in big indoor concerts and event – and some outdoor ones – smoking is totally prohibited. Pretty good, when you consider the number of Israelis who still insist on smoking.

However, not everything is falling in favor of the anti-smoking advocates in the country. A 13-year lawsuit filed by the Clalit Health Services against foreign and Israeli tobacco giants demanding compensation for treating its health fund members who were ill due to smoking, was thrown out of The Supreme Court this week.

According to a report by Judy Siegel, the longtime Jerusalem Post health correspondent, who is one of the country’s leading anti-smoking advocates, the three justices did not deny the tobacco companies’ responsibility for harm done to the health of Clalit and other insurers’ members, but stated that rather than filing a direct action against the tobacco companies, Clalit should sue on behalf of each individual harmed by tobacco.

Among the targets of the suit were the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Corporation; the British American Tobacco Company Ltd. and other members of the same group; Philip Morris International; Philip Morris USA and other parts of the group; and Israel’s Dubek Ltd. and other members of its group.

The lawyer representing Clalit, Israel’s biggest health fund, was Israel Council for the Prevention of Smoking chairman and lawyer Amos Hausner. He modelled its case after the huge lawsuits by healthcare systems of the 50 US states, which ended in a settlement of $245 billion for the states.

Hausner said it was unfortunate that the tobacco companies, which have caused huge damage to the health of smokers and non-smokers exposed to their smoke, had not been forced to pay the medical expenses of the health fund for treating the victims. He noted that the health system could be transformed by the infusion of this money, embroiled as it is in a seemingly endless labor dispute over hospital overcrowding and severe shortage of medical manpower.

While there won’t likely be a smoking gun in this case, there are surely many other cases against the Israeli tobacco companies that will follow in the footsteps of this one – with the results hopefully being different.

Tags: • Category: A New Reality, Business, Environment, General, Israeliness, Life, News, Social Justice 

Comments

One Comment on Smoking out the Israeli tobacco companies

  1. Rachel Neiman on Thu, Jul 14th 2011 7:58 PM

    2. More than they love cottage cheese, Israelis love their ciggies.
    http://israelity.com/2011/05/29/nostalgia-sunday-bye-bye-to-butts/
    Although according to the latest SuperBrands survey, Marlboro has supplanted TIME. But Tnuva Cottage still rates.
    http://www.superbrands.co.il/superbrands2011.pdf

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