Environmental Health in Israel | 2020

- 78 - Environmental Health in Israel 2020  Chapter 8 Paint, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and wood products may emit VOCs including formaldehyde. Exposure to these consumer products has been associated with increased risk of allergic reactions and respiratory difficulties in children. 4 Progress since 2017 The Environmental Health in Israel 2017 report defined challenges related to Chemicals in Consumer Products. Progress achieved in this area during the past three years is outlined below. The Ministry of Economy and Industry (MoE) has ministerial responsibility for supervision and enforcement of compliance with relevant mandatory standards for consumer products sold in Israel. In recent years, professional collaboration between the Ministry of Health (MoH) and MoE has expanded. Researchers from the University of Haifa, the Standards Institute of Israel (SII), and MoH, in collaboration with the Environment and Health Fund (EHF), initiated several studies on the presence of chemicals in consumer products and shared the initial findings with MoE for further action and enforcement. Although MoE uses such findings to target and focus enforcement, there is no regulation or mechanism designed to ensure cooperation among the relevant ministries, i.e., MoE, MoH, and the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MoEP). The creation of a joint statutory inter-ministerial committee to formulate annual work plans and objectives would improve oversight and enforcement and would focus the limited resources on products that pose the greatest potential danger to public health. MoE recently launched an online portal for safety of consumer products that conveys information on consumer products that entered the domestic market and were found to be non-compliant and removed from the shelves (recalled). 5 Despite this improvement, there is still no data published on the scope and results of testing. The challenge : Improve regulatory enforcement for consumer products (enforcement in markets and not only at point of import) Challenge for the coming years : Establish an integrating authority (inter-ministerial committee) to improve and strengthen supervision and enforcement of regulation of consumer products sold in Israel. In short : Oversight and enforcement of consumer products’ standards in markets in Israel have improved thanks to stronger cooperation among regulators. Supervision and enforcement efforts were extended to product groups identified in market surveys as posing a potential danger to public health. Significant progress Some progress Little or no progress Legend: