Izrael was chairman of the State Committee on Hydrometeorology ("Goskomgidromet") at the time of the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Following the accident he was widely criticized for slow and inaccurate monitoring. He was also criticized for allowing air pollution throughout the USSR to reach unprecedented levels. In a 2004 article published in "Nature", Quirin Schiermeier and Bryon MacWilliams referred to him as a "fossil communist fighting for fossil fuel."