The Supreme Court has issued a conditional order calling on the Environmental Protection Ministry, Public Security Ministry, and Health Ministry to take action on the issue of environmental disturbances caused by a person smoking in his home, when the smoke enters the neighbors' homes, Israel Hayom reported.
The court has instructed the ministries to enact guidelines on the matter, or enforce the matter of cigarette smoke pollution entering other apartments in a different manner.
The government now has 60 days to respond to the order.
The Supreme Court's decision follows an appeal submitted by the Avir Naki organization and six individuals who were harmed by cigarette smoke entering their homes and who are represented by attorney Amos Hausner. One of the individuals is unable to sleep in her home due to the neighbors' smoke, another suffered a heart attack and after undergoing catheterization was told by the doctors that the heart attack seemed to have been caused by his heavy smoking - except that he himself is not a smoker; he suffers from the neighbors' smoke, which comes into his apartment. Another of the individuals is recovering from cancer, and a fourth gasps for air due to the cigarette smoke entering his home.
According to Israel Hayom, the appeal was initially filed four years ago, and is accompanied by a survey showing that it represents 2.8 million people who suffer from the same problem. Over 50% of households in Israel are often exposed to secondhand smoke from their neighbors, and 83% of them suffer due to it. A full 8,095 people die of smoking each year.
According to the survey, 48% of smokers said that their neighbors' smoke bothers them and that their neighbors should stop. It is expected that if smoking is declared a disturbance if it enters neighbors' homes, the number of smokers will drop, just as it did when legislation was enacted to prevent smoking in public spaces.
The court was also presented with a document written by former FDA official Mitch Zeller, who noted that if one neighbor smokes on his balcony, the smoke enters ten other apartments, and affects at least 20 additional people .
In 2018, then-MK Yehuda Glick put forward a bill which would have prevented smoking in homes. The bill was a response to the court's rejection of a lawsuit filed by an elderly couple from Holon who suffered from the secondhand smoke due to their neighbors' smoking. Though the couple's suit was was rejected due to the lack of legislation banning smoking in private homes, an appeal to the district court resulted in a compromise under which the neighbors would smoke only in the far area of their balcony.
Glick's bill did not pass, and later that year the Knesset dissolved.