IDF Bases to Stop Selling Cigarettes

AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File

The Times of Israel reports: Beginning November 1, cigarettes and other tobacco products will disappear from the shelves of stores in dozens of military bases around the country as the army steps up its fight against smoking, the Israel Defense Force’s manpower chief said Sunday.

The ban on cigarette sales on those 55 bases — 65 stores, in total — is the most visible of a series of steps that the army is rolling out to combat what it has designated as a serious health risk not only to the smoking soldiers but to their comrades, 80 percent of whom report being exposed to secondhand smoke.

In addition to halting the sale of tobacco on some bases, the military will begin scaling back the number of smoking areas on bases, create a rule against smoking outside those designated zones, encourage commanders to refrain from smoking in front of their subordinates, and begin labeling smoking soldiers as such on their medical forms, Brig. Gen. Meirav Kirshner, chief of staff of the IDF’s Manpower Directorate, told The Times of Israel.

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