A report released Sunday by an environmental group, in conjunction with the Health and Environment ministries, states that the air in Israel's large cities is highly polluted – to the extent that it is responsible for childhood illnesses to a far greater extent than in other places. According to the study, the air in Haifa, for example, contains six to ten times more potentially cancerous particles than permitted by law.
The report adds that pollution in large cities is significantly worse than in western Europe, and that the data published by the World Health Organization in 2005 linking pollution and health problems in children were borne out by statistics in Israel.