Outdoor Smoking and Tobacco Urge

Naomi Ohayon, a 52-year-old mother of four, smoked for over 30 years until she quit the habit — hopefully for good — a month ago. “I’d tried just about every stop-smoking discount Esse cigarettes program out there,” Ohayon said from her home in the southern city of Beersheva. “Once, I quit for three days, the other times I couldn’t stop at all.” Ohayon, who has asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), said she became increasingly motivated to kick the habit as her health deteriorated. “I couldn’t breathe. It was difficult to sleep. I desperately wanted to quit but I was addicted. But my oldest son begged me to quit, over and over, so I kept trying,” she said. Eventually, Ohayon’s quest brought her to the Smoking Cessation program at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, an hour-and-a-half-long drive from her home. The only hospital-based anti-smoking program approved by the Ministry of Health, it opened to the public a year and a half ago and has a success rate topping 50 percent. “I feel very good. Baruch Hashem, I can breathe better. I can walk much more outside — stroll even. I thank God and his messengers at the hospital,” Ohayon said, her voice growing emotional. Although Israel’s anti-smoking laws have made it increasingly difficult for Israelis to light up in most public places, many of those who have been smoking for years continue to find it nearly impossible to quit. According to the Ministry of Health, 23.8 percent of Israeli adults smoke. About 33 percent of Jewish men and 25 percent of Jewish women smoke, while 40 percent of Arab men smoke, but only 10 percent of Arab women. An alarming 11 percent of Israeli students in the 10th and 11th grades (ages 16-17) smoke on a regular basis. Gabriel Izbicki, director of Shaare Zedek’s Pulmonary Institute, which runs the smoking cessation program, said his program relies on a multi-disciplinary approach, in the belief that addiction is a complex matter that requires both physical and mental health support. “We’re the only program that mixes pulmonary doctors and an addiction specialist, especially with regards to tobacco addiction,” Izbicki said. “We work on the psychological aspects of addiction and, if needed, prescribe various drugs.” Unlike programs offered by the country’s HMOs, which treat large groups of patients with one approach, Shaare Zedek’s program is customized for each patient.