Air pollution is contributing to illness and death in Israel, where more people die from air pollution than from traffic accidents. Yet the ‘quiet killer’ continues to threaten lives, particularly the lives of children and the vulnerable. Israelis are beginning to grasp the magnitude of public health hazards posed by toxic contaminants in the air.

Factors contributing to air pollution in Israel include:

A weak and diffuse legislative framework:

Israel’s weak and diffuse legislative framework hampers air resources management and allows industry to violate air emissions standards – frequently and often by thousands of percentage points.

In 2005, IUED launched a campaign to introduce new legislation that would provide effective tools for managing Israel's air quality. The IUED-drafted Clean Air Act for Israel has begun its way through the legislative process. In July 2005, it passed its preliminary reading in the Knesset and it is on the government's legislative agenda for the fall session.

Fuel quality: 

The government has been slow to advance the relatively easy switch to cleaner motor vehicle fuels that could reduce street-level exposure to particulate pollution from two million cars, trucks and buses on Israel’s roads.  

Polluting industries:

The monopolistic Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) continues to rely on coal-powered electricity generation instead of investing in newer, cleaner fuels. And Israel's largest industrial conglomerates in the Negev and Haifa Bay have amassed a sorry record as serial polluters.