Yevgani Sofer, Director of Risk Management at the Ministry of Environmental Protection: “At the end of a decade of implementing the ministry’s policy, approximately 350 factories have demonstrated compliance with the policy and do not create an unacceptable risk to the environment. As a result, tens of thousands of people have been removed from the range of serious risk from hazardous material incidents. The ministry continues to act against factories that hold hazardous materials, to preserve the environment and peace the public”.
Rumi Ibn Danan, who until recently served as director of the Hazardous Materials Division at the Ministry of Environmental Protection: “The separation distance policy of the Ministry of Environmental Protection has been implemented for about a decade. This policy defined, for the first time in Israel, clear and uniform criteria for the nature of acceptable risk to the population, as a result of industrial activity with hazardous materials and an estimate of the separation distance required between the occupation of hazardous materials and the population. The separation distance policy focuses on factories from which there are A significant risk from hazardous materials that may come out of the factory. Determining the separation distances is done for the purpose of protecting public health and the environment from routine hazardous material incidents, while taking into account the needs of development and trying to minimize the restrictions on land uses given limited land resources.”
To read the full report: Summary report on the tenth anniversary of the implementation of the policy of separation distances from stationary sources of risk, July 2022
The separation distance policy of the Ministry of Environmental Protection has been implemented for about a decade. This policy defined for the first time in Israel clear and uniform standards regarding acceptable risk to the population, as a result of industrial activity with hazardous materials. The policy applies to sources of risk that use large quantities of dangerous, toxic or flammable substances, the potential risk of which to the population is significant, as defined in the policy.
The policy was applied to approximately 350 establishments that deal with hazardous substances required by a poisons permit, according to the criteria defined according to hazardous substances and quantities. As of today, all the factories included in the policy meet the defined acceptance criteria, except for 1% that are in advanced work processes to comply with the policy. These plants are monitored and handled by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, until the process is completed.
In the report prepared for the Ministry of Environmental Protection with the assistance of the consulting company DHV MED, there are estimates for the benefits of implementing the policy and estimates for its costs. The report estimated very significant benefits for the implementation of the policy. According to the sample test that was carried out during the preparation of the policy report, the policy resulted in the removal of approximately 27,600 people from the risk ranges to PAC3.
Following a change in processes, a reduction in the quantities of materials and measures that factories installed and used to reduce the risks, this population was removed from exposure to the risk of death, to which they were exposed before the policy, according to the scenarios defined in the policy. In addition, about 737,000 people were similarly excluded from PAC2 risk, which refers to the risk of serious health effects.
In addition, about 880,000 dunams of areas were reduced from which restrictions on hazardous substances were removed, which would have been accepted theoretically if the factories had not reduced the risk from their activities. These areas include, among others, areas with a high industrial load such as Haifa Bay and Ashdod. It is important to note that these significant benefits were obtained while focusing on the 350 most significant sources of risk identified by the ministry.
On the economic side, it was found that the cost of the factories to implement the policy amounted to approximately NIS 70 million, where the main cost involves the installation of measures and techniques that were implemented for the purpose of reducing the risk. Only about 8% of these costs are the costs associated with the preparation of separation distance surveys.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection operates and continues to operate to reduce the risks of hazardous substances in factories in accordance with the policies used in Europe and the OECD countries, including the inclusion of a risk management policy for the factories, which includes an in-depth analysis of the production processes, scenario analyses, plans to bridge gaps and more. The inclusion of this policy will enable better monitoring and safer regulation in the area of protecting the public and the environment from hazardous material incidents.