Environmental and health risks related to waste incineration (original) (raw)
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The Impact of Waste Incineration on Human Beings and The Environment
Ecological Chemistry and Engineering. S = Chemia i Inżynieria Ekologiczna. S
The article discusses issues related to the impact of incineration on human health and the environment. The aim of the work is to make a broad overview of the existing literature in this area. The problem was described in the literature based on a number of waste incineration plants studies in both Europe and all around the world. Subjects analyzed in the literature were risks at workplace, both administrative ones and directly related to the process of thermal treatment of waste. These risks result among others from the atmospheric emissions of many pollutants, including most of all polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans, heavy metals and some volatile organic compounds. The results of these studies will be an important argument in the discussion on the possible risks to humans and the environment posed by waste incineration plants and the expediency of building waste incinerators in Poland.
Health effects of exposure to waste incinerator emissions:a review of epidemiological studies
Annali dell'Istituto superiore di sanita
This review evaluates the epidemiological literature on health effects in relation to incineration facilities. Several adverse health effects have been reported. Significant exposure-disease associations are reported by two thirds of the papers focusing on cancer (lung and larynx cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma). Positive associations were found for congenital malformations and residence near incinerators. Exposure to PCB and heavy metals were associated with several health outcomes and in particular with reduction of thyroid hormones. Findings on non-carcinogen pathologies are inconclusive. Effect of biases and confounding factors must be considered in the explanation of findings. Methodological problems and insufficient exposure information generate difficulties on study results. Research needs include a better definition of exposure in qualitative and quantitative terms in particular by developing the use of biomarkers and by implementing environmental measurements.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2019
In the present research, we evaluated the health effects of exposure to the municipal waste incinerator (MWI) in Pisa, Italy, through a population-based cohort design. The individual exposure pattern in the area was estimated through CALPUFF dispersion models of NO χ (developed by Atmospheric Studies Group Earth Tech, Lowell, Massachusetts), used as pollution proxies of the MWI and the relevant industrial plant, and through land-use regression for NO χ due to traffic pollution. Using Cox regression analysis, hazard ratios (HR) were estimated adjusting for exposure to other sources of pollution, age, and socioeconomic deprivation. An adjusted linear trend of HR (HRt) over the categories of exposure, with the relative 95% CI and p-value, was also calculated. Mortality and hospital discharge were studied as impact outcomes. Mortality analysis on males showed increased trends of mortality due to natural causes (HRt p < 0.05), the tumor of the lymphohematopoietic system (HRt p = 0.01), cardiovascular diseases (HRt p < 0.01); in females, increased trends for acute respiratory diseases (HRt p = 0.04). Morbidity analysis showed a HRt for lymphohematopoietic system tumor in males (HRt p = 0.04). Some of the excesses are in agreement with previous evidence on the health effects of MWIs, although the observation in males but not in females, suggests a cautious interpretation. Confounding due to other sources of exposure cannot be ruled out. The evidence was considered important in the decision-making process of the waste cycle.
The health impacts of waste incineration: a systematic review
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 2019
Introduction: Waste incineration is increasingly used to reduce waste volume and produce electricity. Several incinerators have recently been proposed in Australia and community groups are concerned about health impacts. An overview of the evidence on health effects has been needed. Method: A systematic review of English language literature for waste incinerators and health using PRISMA methodology. Results: A range of adverse health effects were identified, including significant associations with some neoplasia, congenital anomalies, infant deaths and miscarriage, but not for other diseases. Ingestion was the dominant exposure pathway for the public. Newer incinerator technologies may reduce exposure. Discussion: Despite these findings, diverse chemicals, poor study methodologies and inconsistent reporting of incinerator technology specifications precludes firmer conclusions about safety. Conclusion: Older incinerator technology and infrequent maintenance schedules have been strongly linked with adverse health effects. More recent incinerators have fewer reported ill effects, perhaps because of inadequate time for adverse effects to emerge. A precautionary approach is required. Waste minimisation is essential. Implications for public health: Public health practitioners can offer clearer advice about adverse health effects from incinerators. We suggest improved research design and methods to make future studies more robust and comparable. We offer ideas for better policy and regulation.
Health Risk Assessment of a Modern Municipal Waste Incinerator
Risk Analysis, 1999
During the modernization of the municipal waste incinerator (MWI, maximum capacity of 180,000 tons per year) of Metropolitan Grenoble (405,000 inhabitants), in France, a risk assessment was conducted, based on four tracer pollutants: two volatile organic compounds (benzene and 1, 1, 1 trichloroethane) and two heavy metals (nickel and cadmium, measured in particles). A Gaussian plume dispersion model, applied to maximum emissions measured at the MWI stacks, was used to estimate the distribution of these pollutants in the atmosphere throughout the metropolitan area. A random sample telephone survey (570 subjects) gathered data on time-activity patterns, according to demographic characteristics of the population. Life-long exposure was assessed as a time-weighted average of ambient air concentrations. Inhalation alone was considered because, in the Grenoble urban setting, other routes of exposure are not likely. A Monte Carlo simulation was used to describe probability distributions of exposures and risks. The median of the life-long personal exposures distribution to MWI benzene was 3.2 · 10 Ϫ5 Ȑg/m 3 (20th and 80th percentiles ϭ 1.5 · 10 Ϫ5 and 6.5 · 10 Ϫ5 Ȑg/ m 3 ), yielding a 2.6 · 10 Ϫ10 carcinogenic risk (1.2 · 10 Ϫ10 -5.4 · 10 Ϫ10 ). For nickel, the corresponding life-time exposure and cancer risk were 1.8 · 10 Ϫ4 Ȑg/m 3 (0.9.10 Ϫ4 -3.6 · 10 Ϫ4 Ȑg/m 3 ) and 8.6 · 10 Ϫ8 (4.3 · 10 Ϫ8 -17.3 · 10 Ϫ8 ); for cadmium they were respectively 8.3 · 10 Ϫ6 Ȑg/m 3 (4.0 · 10 Ϫ6 -17.6 · 10 Ϫ6 ) and 1.5 · 10 Ϫ8 (7.2 · 10 Ϫ9 -3.1 · 10 Ϫ8 ). Inhalation exposure to cadmium emitted by the MWI represented less than 1% of the WHO Air Quality Guideline (5 ng/m 3 ), while there was a margin of exposure of more than 10 9 between the NOAEL (150 ppm) and exposure estimates to trichloroethane. Neither dioxins nor mercury, a volatile metal, were measured. This could lessen the attributable life-long risks estimated. The minute (VOCs and cadmium) to moderate (nickel) exposure and risk estimates are in accord with other studies on modern MWIs meeting recent emission regulations, however.
Health Effects from Hazardous Waste Incineration Facilities: Five Case Studies
Toxicology and Industrial Health, 1996
One recent British epidemiological study documented a "marked concentration" of larynx cancer cases among adults ill a community within two kilometers of a commercial waste ,. incinerator (Travis /989). Source Investigation Travis, a British newspaper reporter, was the author of a newspaper article published in The Guardian. This article quoted a presentation made by Anthony Gatrell, a professor in the Lancaster University Department of Geography, at the British Institute.of Geography's annual conference in January 1989. In his presentation at the conference, Gatrell noted an unusual distribution of four cases of laryngeal cancer in an area of a village located near a small, unnamed industrial waste incinerator. The facility was located in or near the small town of Charnock Richard, Coppull, in Lancashire, U.K., and operated from 1972 to 1980. According to a subsequent paper by Gatrell and Lovett (1992), the facility processed liquid wastes, primarily solvents and oils. Not a commercial I Environmental Toxicology International, lnc., wasthe source for all funding and support.
Chemosphere, 2001
Two municipal waste incinerators in the vicinity of a residential area close to the city of Antwerp caused concern to local habitants. Risk assessment was performed combining chemical, toxicological measurements and model calculations. As the ®rst step in risk assessment an inventory was made of historic emissions from both incinerators with emphasis on dioxins. The operational atmospheric transport and deposition model for priority substances (OPS) was used to calculate the deposition of dioxins in the vicinity of incinerators. The observed soil contamination pattern did not correspond to the calculated deposition pattern, indicating that other sources may contribute at least partly to the local PCDD/PCDF contamination of the area. Dioxin exposure of people in the Neerlandquarter as a function of the food consumption behavior was calculated using a mathematical model (VLIER-HUMAAN) combined with transfer factors. According to the results of these calculations, just residing in the impact area does not result in a meaningful risk. Only if locally produced food was consumed (milk, meat and vegetables), exposure in the Neerlandquarter was enhanced compared to the average dioxin exposure estimated for the Flemish population. Exposure in 1997 was below the exposure in 1980. As a consequence of dierent eating habits and lower bodyweight, children are subjected to signi®cantly higher exposure than adults. Adverse health outcomes from dioxin exposure in the past cannot be excluded. There was no evidence for enhanced exposure to genotoxicants based on a comparison of chromosomal damage to blood cells of children from the study area to those from a control group. Ó