"Distortion" of passive smoking evidence provokes controversy in Israel

doi:10.1136/bmj.320.7238.826/e

BMJ 2000;320:826 ( 25 March )

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"Distortion" of passive smoking evidence provokes controversy in Israel

Judy Siegel-Itzkovich Jerusalem

Israel's respected daily newspaper in the Hebrew language, which markets itself as "the newspaper for thinking people," has published a six page cover story in its magazine supplement dismissing the fact that passive smoking is dangerous to health and praising some of the so-called benefits of active smoking. The article in Ha'aretz, which was largely based on a misrepresentation and misinterpretation of an epidemiological meta-analysis by Copas and Shi in the BMJ (2000;320:417-8), has been roundly denounced by Israeli public health experts and by Israel's health minister, Shlomo Benizri.

As a result of the article, the health minister called on all Israeli print media, "especially Ha'aretz," to stop accepting and publishing cigarette advertisements. Currently, the only Israeli publications to adopt such a policy on tobacco are Bamahaneh (the magazine of the Israel Defence Forces) and Yom LeYom (the weekly paper of the ultra-Orthodox Shas . . . [Full text of this article]

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Relevant Article

Reanalysis of epidemiological evidence on lung cancer and passive smoking: J B Copas and J Q Shi
BMJ 2000 320: 417-418. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]