Israel and pollution

[White Israelite]

so I was wondering, pollution appears to be a problem in Israel specifically in Kishon River, are there any concerns about this? Seems very unprofessional if this is true, apparently several Shayetet 13 (equivalent to our navy seals) up to 40 of them have cancer because of this river.

"In recent years, it was discovered that S-13 veterans had high occurrence of cancer, probably due to training in the polluted Kishon River and Haifa Bay. A commission for investigating the matter did not find statistical evidence that the diving in the Kishon caused the cancer. However, Minister of Defence, Shaul Mofaz, decided to compensate the divers' families in spite of the commissions' findings[3]."



Kishon River is a river in Israel that flows into the Mediterranean Sea at the city of Haifa.

Considered the most polluted river in Israel, it has been the subject of controversy regarding the struggle to improve the water quality.

The pollution stems in part from daily contamination for over 40 years with mercury, other heavy metals, and organic chemicals by nearby chemical plants.

It is often claimed today[citation needed] that there are more chemicals than water in the river, and that washing ones hands in this river can cause severe chemical burns.[1] On several occasions this river (or rather, patches of petrochemical waste on it) has caught fire from the chemical contaminants. Below Histadrud Bridge (Highway 4[verification needed]), after passing the petrochemical industries zone, the pH was 3 or below for most of the time in 2001.

Since 2001, it was discovered that Shayetet 13 veterans had high occurrence of cancer, probably due to training in the polluted Kishon River and Haifa Bay. A commission for investigating the matter didn't find statistical evidences[citation needed] that the diving in the Kishon caused the cancer. However, Minister of Defence, Shaul Mofaz, decided to compensate the divers' families in spite of the commission findings.

A 2002 study found the ability of 3 hours' exposure to Kishon River water to induce DNA damage in rainbow trout liver cells to be on average threefold that of unpolluted water. Notably the lower Kishon[2] had a markedly elevated genotoxic potential.

A 2000 analysis of the river water revealed

    "...chlorinated compounds in discharges from the refineries[3], the municipal sewage treatment plant and from the Haifa Chemicals fertilizer production plant. Heavy metals were present in the discharges from the Carmel Olefins and Haifa Chemicals plants. The upper river system may also be mixed with genotoxic materials from domestic waste and agricultural runoff that contain pesticides and fertilizers. Potent genotoxins usually found in domestic wastes also include N-nitroso compounds and aromatic amines, which are known to be present in human sanitary outflows as well as genotoxic PAHs found in municipal discharges."
    -- Avishai et al. (2002)


Any opinions about this?

[Ehud]

Much of that sounds like it could be exaggerated, I find it hard to believe that there is more pollution in the river than actual water, regardless how bad the pollution is.  There isn't a source attributed to that claim either.  Whether it's that polluted or not, it's still a huge problem.  I don't know how Israel compares to the US or to European countries but it seems pretty bad, Haifa has bad air pollution and on some of the beaches there are black oil marks on the sand. The water should be sealed off, extracted from the area and then mixed into Muslims' drinking supplies.

[White Israelite]

Much of that sounds like it could be exaggerated, I find it hard to believe that there is more pollution in the river than actual water, regardless how bad the pollution is.  There isn't a source attributed to that claim either.  Whether it's that polluted or not, it's still a huge problem.  I don't know how Israel compares to the US or to European countries but it seems pretty bad, Haifa has bad air pollution and on some of the beaches there are black oil marks on the sand. The water should be sealed off, extracted from the area and then mixed into Muslims' drinking supplies.

Heres an article about it

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/941317.stm

I've heard that too about the beaches being polluted when I was asking a friend in Israel about diving there, and he said it's better to stick to Eilat. Israel is a small country, I realize pollution will happen with industry but how bad is the pollution overall in the country? I think it is a valid concern. Israel is a beautiful land and would be a shame if the land was damaged from pollution.

[JTFFan]

Much of that sounds like it could be exaggerated, I find it hard to believe that there is more pollution in the river than actual water, regardless how bad the pollution is.  There isn't a source attributed to that claim either.  Whether it's that polluted or not, it's still a huge problem.  I don't know how Israel compares to the US or to European countries but it seems pretty bad, Haifa has bad air pollution and on some of the beaches there are black oil marks on the sand. The water should be sealed off, extracted from the area and then mixed into Muslims' drinking supplies.

Heres an article about it

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/941317.stm

I've heard that too about the beaches being polluted when I was asking a friend in Israel about diving there, and he said it's better to stick to Eilat. Israel is a small country, I realize pollution will happen with industry but how bad is the pollution overall in the country? I think it is a valid concern. Israel is a beautiful land and would be a shame if the land was damaged from pollution.

Thanks for the article. It's also the Arab muSSlim Nazis poisoning and polluting the water, who knows what these muSSlim Nazis are putting in the water.

[White Israelite]

That is true, Gaza is filthy.

How bad is the water near Haifa? Any 3 eyed fish?

Still can't believe that the government would allow special forces to dive in a river so dirty, there has to be some sort of explanation for that. I've also heard of many Israelis getting cancer that worked in the Dimona facility.

[newman]

Industry should not be allowed to pollute the Holy Land, but the human pollution (arabs) are a bigger problem at the moment.

[White Israelite]

Any other opinions about this?

[DownwithIslam]

My opinion is that the Israeli govt and political system is totally corrupt. The fact that they do not throw the muzzies the hell out is just one aspect of their corruption and criminality. The fact that they allow Israeli natural recourses to become polluted is yet another way they are destroying things.

[Ari]

This is troubling.  Unfortunately, pollution is almost inevitable when you are surrounded by Arabs.

[MassuhDGoodName]

Re:  "...Any other opinions about this?..."

Yes.

The Environmental Protection Agency was created to address the American public's growing awareness of pollution and its damage to our environment.

Such public awareness and  governmental response are in a manner of speaking, a luxury item.

A tiny state like Israel, one under constant threat and unending terrorist attacks, is a country in which few of its citizens have the "luxury" of becoming "full-time" environmental activists of the kind we see in the U.S. and Europe.

The majority of Israeli Jews are mired in a daily struggle "to make ends meet", while living in a sliver of land with few resources, and while fighting a major war approximately every twenty years.

The so-called "environmental movement" was a direct outgrowth of the 1960's Hippie/Back to the Earth/New Left counter culture.

At first it was belittled and scorned by the mainstream of America.

Richard Nixon created the EPA in the 1970's; literally two hundred years from the founding of The Republic.

Israel has been a state for a mere sixty years.

People there are slowly becoming aware of the need to protect what few natural resources they have, but they simply don't have the luxury to apportion finances and manpower to matters unrelated to their primary needs.

When I lived in Israel many years ago, I was appalled to see "junk yards" and "dumps" in The Holy Land!

Somehow I had envisioned Israel to be a place of "near-perfection"; a "holy" and "sanctified" land without blemish; a Jewish country where every Jew there would "dance in the streets" to rejoice at each new planeload of Jews making aliyah.

It had never occurred to me that Israel was a country like all others which had unsightly junkyards!

Not one single piece of literature promoting aliyah had even hinted at the smell of human urine in the streets of old Jerusalem, or the meat sellers there selling meat which was covered with flies.

Nor did the literature enticing young Jews to kibbutz mention that toilet paper could not be flushed after use.

After a while it dawned on me that the numerous government bureaus such as those guarding food quality or public health, as well as the everyday things like "water pressure" which I had taken for granted all of my life, were in fact luxuries, and that I was a seriously spoiled individual "without a clue" about the realities of the world outside of America.

[Zelhar]

Pollution control isn't a luxury, the amount of pollution increases in correlation to economic growth, so a certain percentage must always be dedicated to deal with it.

The Kishon has been cleaner in recent years because the factories were forced to treat their wastes. However it still is heavily polluted and there are toxic sediments lining its basin. There are plans to scrape these sediments and then get rid off them either in the deep see or by incineration. The latter idea is idiotic since it will pollute the air with hazardous dioxin and other toxins, but there are green organizations that oppose dumping waste in the water.

Anyway Israel coasts south of the Golf of Haifa are reasonably clean, the Golf is polluted by heavy industries and by the seaport and the pollution tends to stick there and even come back ashore due to the weak currents in the area. The pollution that gets out of the golf is carried north but  into to deeper water I suppose because the northern beaches (Betset, Achziv, Rosh Hanikrea)  are very lovely.