Health Ministry flip-flops on Haifa kids’ cancer rate

The Health Ministry responded on Tuesday to vociferous criticism from Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav — who had accused the minister of inaction over the city’s burgeoning air pollution — denying there was evidence linking pollution to cancer rates in the northern port city.

“The director general of the Health Ministry held a discussion with the relevant bodies,” the ministry said in a statement. “During the discussion, national cancer registry data was presented, showing an excess incidence of cancer in general and lung cancer among adults.”

However, the statement disputed the claim — one that the Health Ministry had itself made in a report a week ago — that the cancer rate among Haifa’s children was out of hand. “There is no testimony toward an excessive incidence of cancer in children,” it said.

Last week, in a Channel 2 report, the ministry’s director of public health services, Itamar Grotto, claimed that half the cases of cancer among Haifa’s children were due to the city’s air pollution, and that the childhood cancer rate in the area was double that in the rest of Israel.

The ministry did not offer an explanation for its about-face.

“With regards to the research data collected by Hadassah Hospital researchers who tracked all age groups of the population, including children from birth to 14, for 10 years — the Ministry of Health will continue to examine the data,” officials said.

Residents remained unconvinced by the Health Ministry’s latest statement. The family of Linoy Sousan, a 7-year-old girl from Haifa who has suffered from leukemia for two years, has filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming air pollution is the cause of Linoy’s sickness, Channel 2 news reported.

At the meeting on Monday, the Ynet news site reported, Health Ministry Director General Arnon Afek spoke with Grotto and five representatives of various medical organizations.

Two of those, Prof. Eli Somech and Dr. Tzachi Grossman of the Israeli Pediatric Association, said after the meeting, “The Israeli Pediatric Association will work together with the Health Ministry to minimize the damages of air pollution, and the association expresses its concerns for the increase in cancer cases in adults in the Haifa area.”

“With that,” the pair went on, “the association stresses that there is no excess of cancer cases among children in the Haifa area and therefore would like to praise the announcement by the Health Ministry, the goal of which is to calm the public.”

Yahav, the mayor, had ordered municipal trucks to block the entrance to factories in the city on Sunday and issued closure orders to factories as well.

Municipal trucks again blocked factory entrances on Tuesday morning, but this time the factories were better prepared: The Haifa oil refineries used a crane to lift and remove a truck blocking its main entrance.

The city of Haifa is now mulling its next step, officials say. The municipality announced Monday that it would put its battle with local factories on hold until after Independence Day on Thursday.

Factories that received closure orders were slated to appear in court Tuesday afternoon to overturn the decision.

City officials say they hope residents will come to protest reversing the closure orders. “We hope the Environmental Protection Ministry, the Health Ministry, the Ministry of Infrastructure and the rest of those who kept themselves hidden and quiet do not again undermine the closing of these factories,” officials said.