Monday May 13 2024: Times of Israel: Stressed out by war, Israeli's appear to be smoking more than they have in years.
Trauma, increased stress and PTSD have led to increasing numbers of people in Israel turning to smoking.
Current events in Israel have led to high levels of stress among the population. According to public health experts, when stress levels surge, so do rates of people taking on the unhealthy, addictive habit of lighting up. “We are in such a challenging time,” said Prof. Hagai Levine, chairman of the Israel Association of Public Health Physicians. “The cigarette is not our friend. We don’t need it. But I totally understand that we also have other priorities and considerations.”
Levine said data from previous Israeli wars and military operations “show that, many times, there is an increase in addictive behaviors and smoking.”
According to Dr. Yael Bar-Zeev of the Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem-Hadassah Medical Center, much of the uptick is not in new people picking up the habit, but in existing smokers reaching for more and more cigarettes or vape cartridges as a coping mechanism.
A limited survey conducted early in the war by Maccabi Healthcare Services, Israel’s second-largest health maintenance organization, found that 56% of self-reported smokers shared that they were smoking more. Another limited survey of smokers conducted by Prof. Ido Wolf, director of the oncology division at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center-Ichilov Hospital, had 65% of respondents admitting to smoking more since October 7.
According to Shira Kislev, CEO of Smoke Free Israel, a non-profit organization focused on preventing smoking among children, adolescents, and young adults, those who smoked in the past, but managed to kick the habit are likely to start lighting up again to deal with tough times. Kislev said that smoking rates were already rebounding before the war, after falling for several years, and she expects it to continue rising in 2024.
With hundreds of thousands of reserve soldiers called up, some surmise that the war effort itself has been a factor in sending smoking rates wafting upward.
Unlike in wars in earlier decades, the Israel Defense Forces does not distribute cigarettes to the troops, but plenty nonetheless made it to various units alongside snacks, clothes, equipment and other gear donated by those looking to bolster the war effort or their own bottom line.
“We don’t have the actual data yet, but we know from anecdotal evidence and reports from the field that a lot of tobacco [products] have been distributed among reserve soldiers that were going into the battlefield,” Bar-Zeev said. “Some of it came from donations from [individual] people, but a lot of it came from donations from the tobacco companies. We have heard that as a result of the cigarette donations, a lot of soldiers have either gone back to smoking or have started smoking".
Kislev emphasized that initiation and addiction to smoking usually happen up to age 24, with the riskiest age group being 18 to 24, the cohort that conscripts and young reservists fall into. Levine said troops he had spoken to who had gone back to smoking cited stress relief during long hours in between combat as a motivating factor.
A self-reported survey Levine and his team did to assess the health of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum families and
volunteers showed that they were under enormous stress and suffering a decline in their overall health, including an increase in smoking. “We saw this from our survey and I also have the personal impression that there is heavy smoking. This is from my observation of being with the families,” Levine said. “Some of these people returned to smoking after having quit years ago.”
There has also been a relaxation of attitudes shunning smoking in public in deference to those going through tough times, Levine said, which can be seen at rallies for the hostages in Tel Aviv and elsewhere.
Levine said that some of the hostages’ family members promised they would quit smoking once their loved ones are back home. “I hope this relief will lead to smoking cessation and that these people will keep their promise to themselves,” he said. “Unfortunately, we’re not there yet.”
In terms of the troops, Levine suggested that a quitting hotline could be set up and personal counseling arranged for when they finish their service. “As I see it, it is our obligation to protect their lives,” he said, referring to the damage to health caused by smoking. “Not when they are in Gaza, but after".
Research at The National Library of Medicine in Maryland revealed that Individuals with more traumatic events had heightened risk for nicotine dependence, and PTSD symptoms partially accounted for this risk.
Martin Blackham Israel First TV Program www.israelfirst.org