MK Dov Khenin (Joint List), Chairman of the Knesset Public Health Lobby, has charged Israel Chemicals (TASE: ICL: NYSE: ICL) management with concealing data from the Knesset about employees at its Rotem-Amfert plant in the Negev that have fallen ill with cancer.
Khenin sent an urgent enquiry on the matter to in which he said that back in June 2015, ICL had been required to provide data about cancer sufferers among its employees at the factory but has yet to respond, even after repeated requests and instructions from the Labor, Welfare and Health Committee. Khenin insists that he was told at a meeting that the data is confidential and not available even to the Ministry of Health. He said, "We are talking about bad taste and it cannot possibly be that even for the ministry responsible for the health of the citizens of Israel there should be "dark corners" where it does not know what is happening."
Khenin told the Knesset plenum today, There is major danger to the health of 55,000 people, Jews and Arabs, in the areas around Arad as a result of the phosphates mine that has been built. So the figures about those ill with cancer among employees following exposure to phosphates are not so important."
He explained that in the US, phosphate mine workers have 2.5 times the rate of cancer than the overall population. Therefore, he insists, the fact that ICL abstains from supplying answers to the committee, despite repeated requests, raises many question marks. It's impossible, Khenin said, to say phosphate mines are good and healthy without supplying the minimum data.
Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman said, "It's unacceptable that in a city that has bylaws about growing allergenic plants to protect asthma sufferers has a factory three kilometers away with 10 times the amount of pollution."
Israel Chemicals said, "There is no excessive cancer among Rotem's employees as determined by an occupational doctor at the Ministry of Economy and Industry who has the relevant authority from the Israeli government, and is in possession of the full information including about Rotem's employees. In addition, a professional opinion by Professor Samet, an international expert hired by the Ministry of Health states that in professional literature worldwide there is no evidence of excessive cancer among phosphate industry workers."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 10, 2016
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