Asbestos found in dozens of public sites near Nahariya - Haaretz

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Mon., February 18, 2008 Adar1 12, 5768

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Last update - 01:26 17/02/2008

Asbestos found in dozens of public sites near Nahariya

By Zafrir Rinat

There are dozens of sites contaminated by asbestos in the Nahariya area, including 11 in urgent need of treatment to prevent the carcinogenic dust from dispersing and endangering public health, according to an asbestos pollution survey conducted by the Environmental Union of Western Galilee Municipalities.

However, the survey almost certainly missed some contaminated sites, since it covered only public property, not private property.

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For years, Nahariya was the home of Eitanit, a company that made asbestos. Eitanit sold or gave surplus asbestos to local residents, and it was used, among other things, for building and repairing access roads and parking lots. The exposure to asbestos caused a sharp rise in the local rate of mesothelioma, a cancer caused by the penetration of asbestos fibers into the body. About a third of those who came down with the disease were apparently exposed to asbestos near their homes.

The survey, funded by the Environmental Protection Ministry, was conducted by drilling and taking soil samples at various sites. The surveyors also interviewed people to obtain information about other potentially contaminated sites.

Altogether, the survey covered 120 sites, of which 72 were found to contain asbestos. The polluted sites, many of which are agricultural roads in the Koren Valley east of Nahariya, contain an estimated 30,000 cubic meters or more of asbestos.

The sites that require high-priority treatment include two asbestos dumps that had been known about even prior to the survey. One is in Shlomi, near a residential neighborhood that is currently under construction, and the surveyors fear that the work underway there is liable to expose piles of asbestos that had been covered over with vegetation and municipal waste.

Another was near Batzat, where stores of asbestos used in paving roads were discovered. Concentrations of asbestos were also found north of Nahariya's hospital and in several locations near Kibbutz Sa'ar. And the Environmental Union stressed that not all agricultural roads made with asbestos had been discovered.

The union recommended that no work on ground known or suspected to be contaminated by asbestos be allowed unless the Environmental Protection Ministry approved it as safe. Earlier this month, the ministry ordered an infrastructure project in Nahariya halted due to fears that it would result in asbestos particles becoming airborne.

"This is the first time we have had precise information about the principal accumulations of asbestos outside the area near the Eitanit factory and the Nahariya municipality," said union director Hila Ben Dori. "Also for the first time, there is willingness on the state's part to invest money in dealing with the problem."

The state and Eitanit are slated to jointly finance a clean-up of the accumulated asbestos and to transfer the waste to a safe storage site, probably in the Negev. The Finance Ministry has not yet approved the funding.

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