5 chemical plants shuttered in Haifa over cancer fears

The mayor of Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, orders the closure of five petrochemical plants following a Health Ministry warning linking high cancer rates to air pollution.

Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav further says that municipality trucks were blocking the entrances to Israel Oil Refineries and Petroleum & Energy Infrastructures, both of which are based on the bay in the northern port city.

Mayor Yona Yahav blocks the roads to Haifa factories, like the one pictured above, Sunday. April 19, in an effort to curb pollution in the port city. (Photo credit: Basel Awidat/Flash90)

“From now on, no tankers will have access to the factories,” he says in remarks relayed by his office, which says five factories had been ordered to shut down.

The move came after a senior Health Ministry official sent a letter to the interior ministry’s planning department warning of a disproportionately high cancer rate in the Haifa area due to the operation of such plants.

— AFP