Schools Closed for 24 Hours Near Haifa Refineries Due to Benzene Levels

Residents living within a one-kilometer radius of the oil refineries have been advised to limit outdoor exposure, with the warning particularly emphasizing precautions for children and pregnant women. For those working in the adjacent industrial zone, officials recommended keeping windows closed and operating air conditioning systems. The elevated benzene levels, which Calcalist reported reached three times the permitted limit at one of the schools, were first detected over the weekend of October 9-10 by a mobile monitoring unit in Kiryat Ata and later recorded at a monitoring station in Haifa.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection linked the pollution to ongoing periodic maintenance and repairs of damage sustained from wartime strikes at the Bazan facility. Consequently, the ministry ordered an immediate halt to all maintenance work at the complex, stipulating that operations may only resume after the refinery conducts an investigation and submits a detailed plan to prevent future environmental hazards. Kiryat Ata Mayor Yaakov Peretz has actively engaged with government officials and refinery management to demand that no maintenance work resume until air quality is fully assured.

According to JDN, the Ministry of Environmental Protection emphasized that this incident highlights the importance of advancing government policy to cease all petrochemical industry operations in Haifa Bay. The health and environmental ministries plan to conduct a joint situation assessment on Monday to review air monitoring data and update their public guidance.