Professor Ovadi Dagan, Director of the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at the Schneider Pediatric Center, on Midan Keller who died after using an electronic cigarette, April 15, 2023/Schneider Hospital Spokesperson
The smoking epidemic among the youth in Israel, electronic cigarette outside the tax plan of the Ministry of Finance/ShutterStock
About 15 health organizations and doctors' associations sent a letter to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, urging him not to exclude electronic cigarettes from the new tax plan on smoking products: "Your avoidance of raising the tax on electronic cigarettes is abandoning the youth."
The appeal of the anti-smoking organizations and the doctors' unions of the Medical Association comes against the background of a new tax plan on smoking products, recently published by the Ministry of Finance for public comment following the cut in the state budget due to the costs of the "Iron Swords" war.
The new tax plan on smoking products includes an intention to increase the purchase tax on cigarettes and tobacco and an intention to cancel the existing exemption from purchase tax on the importation of various smoking products into Israel.
However, the plan avoids raising the tax on electronic cigarettes and sections on the matter were dropped at the last minute by order of the Minister of Finance before they were published to the public.
As a response to this, the health organizations appealed to Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich to raise the tax on electronic cigarettes, so that it would be at a level similar to the current tax imposed on rolling tobacco and regular cigarettes.
They request that e-cigarettes not be excluded from the new tax plan on the grounds that their exclusion would make e-cigarettes a cheaper smoking product than other products, thereby significantly worsening the smoking epidemic among children and youth, while seriously harming their health.
Why are you doing this to yourself?
Ruslana Rodina and the Cancer Society in an awareness campaign for electronic cigarettes
The smoking epidemic among the youth in Israel
The authors warn the Minister of Finance that "in recent years, a smoking epidemic among teenagers has been raging around the world. In Israel, this epidemic resulted in the tragic death of the late Midan Keller, a 16-year-old boy who was hospitalized after his lungs collapsed as a result of smoking an electronic cigarette.
A survey conducted by the Ministry of Health showed that more than 25% of the youth had tried an electronic cigarette, and for a significant percentage of them it was their first experience with any smoking product.
Among teenagers, they show an increase in the rate of experimenting with electronic cigarettes from 23.1% in 2020 to 32.5% in 2022.
In addition, the age of experimenting with electronic cigarettes decreased in 2023 to 10 and 11 and a jump of more than two times was also recorded in the rate of daily smoking among 15-17 year olds: from 4.7% in 2019 to 9.8% - 2022".
"With the understanding that taxation of smoking products has been proven to be the most effective tool for reducing the number of smokers", *the organizations write to the Minister of Finance with a copy to the Minister of Health - Uriel Bosso, Yo" R. of the Special Committee for the Fight against Drugs and Alcohol - Boaz Bismut, Chairman of the Committee for the Rights of the Child - Eli Dellal, Chairman of the Health Committee - Yonatan Misherki, Member of the Health Committee and the Committee for the Rights of the Child - Usher Shekelim, "and out of a deep obligation to preserve the health of the future generation, it is forbidden To exclude electronic cigarettes from the move to increase taxation on all smoking products".
"The tax plan on smoking products entrusts the youth."
Illustration, courtesy of the Cancer Society/Courtesy of the Cancer Society
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The organizations applying include the Association to War Cancer, the Smoking Eradication Initiative, the Medical Society for Prevention and Smoking Cessation, the Association of Public Health Physicians, the Israeli Pediatric Association, the Public Health Forum, the Association of Pulmonary Physicians, the Association of Family Physicians and the Department of Lifestyle Medicine at the Association of Family Physicians, an informed association, The School of Public Health at Tel Aviv University, the Healthy Cities Network, the Israel Smoking Prevention Council, the Israel Association of Health Promoters and Educators and the Department of Nursing at Emek Jezreel Academic College.
The organizations demand that the decrees regarding the tax on electronic cigarettes be amended accordingly, thus ensuring the health of the entire public in Israel, with an emphasis on the health of children and youth.
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Bezalel Smotrich