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Doctoral Fellowships
Understanding Policy Change Sequences in Vehicle and Industrial Air Pollution
Policies in Israel
The relationship between exposure to petroleum products and their negative health effects is well
established in occupational studies. However, the question remains whether living near petroleum
storage facilities represents a cancer risk. In this study, age standardized rates (ASRs) and recently
developed Double Kernel Density (DKD) tools were used to estimate relative risks of lung and
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) cancers attributed to residential proximity to the Kiryat Haim
petroleum terminal. An innovative approach of exposure estimation using soil samples was also
tested in Ashkelon. In contrast to the ASRs approach, the DKD approach was found to be a more
sensitive tool, revealing that the relative density of both lung and NHL cancers declined in line
with distances from the industrial zone, especially among the elderly. We conclude that living near
petroleum storage sites may represent a significant cancer risk which cannot always be detected by
traditional epidemiological approaches based on aggregated zonal estimates.
Research publications
(1)
Zusman, M., Dubnov, J., Barchana, M., & Portnov, B.A. (2012). Residential proximity to petroleum storage
tanks and associated cancer risks: Double kernel density approach vs. zonal estimates.
Science of the Total
Environment, 441
, 265-276.
(2)
Zusman, M., Ben Asher, J., Kloog, I., & Portnov, B.A. (2013). Estimating multi-annual PM
2.5
air pollution levels
using sVOC soil tests: Ashkelon South, Israel as a case study.
Atmospheric Environment, 81
, 633-641.
(3)
Portnov, B.A., & Zusman, M. (2014). Spatial data analysis using kernel density tools. In J. Wang (Ed.), Encyclopedia
of business analytics and optimization (pp. 2252-2264).
Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference
. doi:10.4018/978-1-
4666-5202-6.ch203
Fellow
Marina Zusman
University of Haifa
Supervisors
Boris A. Portnov,
Jonathan Dubnov
and Micha Barchana
2009-2012
Estimating Cancer Risk Attributed to Living in Proximity to Large
Petroleum Storage Tanks
The study deals with patterns of policy change in Israeli vehicle and industrial air pollution policies
with the aim of mapping sequences of policy changes and understanding the factors and conditions
affecting them. The study includes mapping policy changes in the first decade of the millennium,
constructing a policy change timeline and analyzing policy change sequences. Mapping policy
changes takes into account change magnitude and accumulation over time. Analysis of sequences
takes into account the factors and conditions characterizing the policy areas which are consequential
for change patterns such as resistance to change by stakeholders. Change patterns will also be
compared to those in road safety policy which is generally characterized by relatively weak
stakeholder resistance to change. Results from a three year timeline of policy changes (2002-2004)
revealed the following: a significant phenomenon of accumulating changes in policy sequences;
several central characteristics of policy sequences important for analysis; and a significant difference
between the vehicle air pollution sequence and the industrial air pollution sequence.
Fellow
Ehud Segal
The Hebrew University
of Jerusalem
Supervisor
Eran Feitelson
2009-2012