Earlier this year, the bloggers here at Talent Management told you about a new study confirming that the UK Government would be justified in changing the law around the promotion of very skinny models. In addition, late last year, we revealed that the Spanish political party Convergence and Union (CiU) asked the fashion industry not to hire extremely skinny models.

Well, legislation may not have been changed in the UK or in Spain yet, but in a world-first, Israel has passed a law banning models deemed “malnourished” from appearing in local campaign photos and ads.

So just how is Israel’s Government planning to implement this change? Well, the new law says that at every photoshoot models must produce a medical report, no more than three months old, to prove they are not too skinny by World Health Organization (WHO) standards.

Those standards state that someone with a body mass index (BMI) of less than 18.5 is considered malnourished and models fitting into this category will consequently be prevented from working.

Moreover, if a model in an advertisement published for the Israeli market is digitally altered to appear skinnier – something Talent Management has seen a lot of from the US and Europe of late – this fact must be clearly stated on the ad itself.

With around two percent of Israel’s 14-18 year old girls suffering with severe eating disorders – a statistic that’s similar in other developed countries – this part of the law may help break the illusion that the overly Photoshopped models we see in campaign ads are real and seems a step in the right direction.

However, the law change that judges a model’s health based on BMI has been met with criticism.

Top Israeli model Adi Neumann, for example, has expressed concern, outlining that despite having a BMI less than 18.5 she has a very healthy lifestyle.

Psychiatry professor and eating disorder expert David Herzog agrees: “The health of the model … should be evaluated. Our weight can change hour to hour.”

Israeli legislator and supporter of the law change Dr. Rachel Adato is fully aware of this fact, however, seems certain the benefits will outweigh the disadvantages.

“On the one hand, maybe we’ll hurt a few models. On the other hand, we’ll save a lot of children,” she said, explained that just 5 percent of women are naturally underweight by WHO standards and that for the vast majority, a BMI below 18.5 is indicative of an unhealthy weight.

Talent Management wants to know your thoughts; do you think Israel’s new law is a good idea or is BMI an unfair way to judge a model’s health? Let us know on our Facebook Fan Page.