Starting Wednesday, November 1, 2017, The sale of cigarettes in the Kaveret commissary stores will be discontinued in 78 IDF bases, the IDF Spokesperson announced Sunday.
The Kaveret chain, operated by the Friends of the IDF, operates about 300 points of sale in IDF bases and units throughout Israel. The restriction on cigarette sales will include several mega-bases such as the Central Command and the Air Force Tel Nof base, several military prisons, and a few special forces bases.
According to the IDF announcement, the decision was made based on extensive Medical Corps and HR research. In 2016, the rate of smokers among recruits to the IDF was 25% of the men and 15% of the women. In addition, 89% of soldiers report exposure to cigarette smoke during their service.
The purpose of this move is to focus on primary prevention and to create an environment that encourages clean air and abstinence from smoking, among other things by halting the sale of cigarettes in the Kaveret network.
In the next stage cigarette sales will be discontinued in training and other IDF units. At that point, the General Staff’s orders will be updated to define exclusive smoking areas, so that all other areas will be free of cigarette smoke.
The IDF promised that in the future additional steps will be taken to prevent smoking by soldiers.