I had an open mind about the health risks of incinerators. My initial thought was that incinerators were terribly bad dirty things and I certainly didn't want one on my doorstep. Then I spoke to my brother who works in the environment sector and has technical knowledge on this subject. He said that they weren't as bad as I thought; the newer ones are much cleaner than they used to be, and there are very tight restrictions placed on emissions.
My brother said that in his mind bigger concerns were not what comes out of the chimney but what is done with the ash (both fly ash and bottom ash) which can have high levels of metals and is often hazardous, as well as lorry movements and the possible build up of traffic congestion which would lead to an increase in air pollution and C02 emissions. His thought was that the pollution from any increase in traffic in the area would likely be far more significant than the air pollution from the chimney.
So I thought to do some research on the matter and did read the fairly recent statement from the Heath Protection Agency (http://www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1251473372218) which states that the HPA believe that any potential damage to the health of those living close by to a 'modern well regulated municipal waste incinerator' is likely to be very small, if detectable. Their conclusion is based on assessments of air pollutants on health and the fact that 'modern well managed municipal waste incinerators' make only a very small contribution to local concentrations of air pollutants.
The HPA document states that the incineration process can result in 3 potential sources of exposure: from emissions in the air, via the ash residues and via the cooling water. Provided that the ash and cooling water is appropriately handled and disposed of, they conclude that the only route of exposure to people is through the air emissions, therefore their document focuses entirely on the air emissions and does not discuss the disposal of ash residues and the cooling water.
The HPA does not say that incinerators do no pollute the air. It is widely accepted that all incinerators, even well managed modern incinerators, do pollute, but the HPA considers that the total amount of pollution that comes from these (the modern incinerators) compared to other air pollutants is very small in comparison.
In other words, we could conclude that we are all effected by air pollution (most of which comes from traffic) - throwing in some emissions from modern well run incinerators into the mix won't make any significant difference.
The HPA said that they cannot give the assurance that that there would be zero effect on public health, but that additional burdens on public health of local populations due to modern incinerators is likely to be very small. They say that previous studies done linking adverse effects to incinerators were on older less efficient incinerators that emitted higher levels of pollutants. The problem here is that studies on the impact of newer incinerators have yet to be completed, because these incinerators are, well, new....The conclusion being that we will only know with certainty the effects of modern incinerators in the future.
The HPA statement and the discussion with my environmentally minded brother alleviated my initial concerns. However, I wasn't entirely satisfied with the evidence presented and therefore dug a little deeper to see what else I could find.
Not being a chemist, it is hard to understand a lot of the reports completed following scientific studies, but what quickly became apparent is that there is a huge amount of concern about the move towards incineration in the UK across the country, with huge incinerators springing up all over the place (not surprising since there are many lucrative deals to be had in this area at the moment). At the same time however, many other countries are taking large steps to try and move away from incineration.
I am posting the sites and interesting documents that I come across to the Resources section of ecoivy.org. If you come across any resources that you would also like to add then please register on the site from where you will be able to submit links directly. Both links to resources in favour of and against incineration are welcome. The ecoivy.org is not (yet) for or against incineration - at the moment it is simply researching the facts and trying to get all Ivybridge residents involved in the discussion and aware of the issues.
In particular, regarding the effect of incinerators on health, I found the following document to be comprehensive and well researched. It has been put together by a coalition of six environmental organizations in Canada, including the Pembina Institute, the David Suzuki Foundation, Sierra Legal, Toronto Environmental Alliance, Canadian Environmental Law Association and Great Lakes United. It is well worth a read:
http://pubs.pembina.org/reports/Incineration_FS_Pollution.pdf
What I found particularly troubling when reading this document was that fact that dioxins and similar chemicals, which are emitted by even the most state of the art incinerators, are persistent and bioaccumlative. Pollutants released in stack gasses travel through the air where they are not only inhaled but also deposited on soils, surface waters and vegetation. They get into the food chain, where they ‘bioaccumulate and biomagnify so that food, especially fish and animal products, become the primary route of human exposure’. That being said, the new incinerators might not give out as many emissions, but the newly proposed incinerators are super-sized, and growing rapidly in number, so isn't it just a matter of time before the accumulation of dioxins produced by these incinerators build up in the environment to create a significant impact on health? And when that has happened, and the pollution is distributed throughout the food chain, will we be able to do anything to reverse the damage? Living in Devon, an area where farming and agriculture play an important role in the local economy, I cannot understaned why the local government would be prepared to take any risk of environmental contamination that may work its way into our local farming produce. The other important economical activity for our region is of course tourism. People come out to Devon for the countryside and clean air, to escape for a time from the big cities. Devon people should strive to do everything they can to protect this environment and to ensure it is not spoilt in a way that could potentially result in irreversible damage. The current governmental plan is to build super-incinerators across the South West: one for Cornwall, one for South Devon, one for North Devon, and one for Exeter.
There are also documents addressing the issues of global warming and financial implications of incineration to be found on the Pembina website that should also be read:
http://www.pembina.org/pub/1449
I also found a well written document that specifically discusses the links of incineration to cancer, which was published by the Canadian 'Prevent Cancer' organisation:
http://preventcancernow.ca/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/pcn-incin21.pdf
I am now starting to lean towards the conclusion that the UK's move towards incineration is setting a ticking time bomb of serious health problems and a rise in CO2 that will be left to our children to cope with in the future, that shows a lack of consideration towards the rest of the plant. The effects of the such air pollution and the release of dioxins into the UK environment have implications not just for UK citizens but forthe world.
"The latest scheme masquerading as a rational and responsible alternative to landfills is a nationwide – and worldwide – move to drastically increase the use of incineration… The principal consequence of incineration is thus the transporting of the community’s garbage – in gaseous form, through the air – to neighbouring communities, across state lines, and indeed, to the atmosphere of the entire globe, where it will linger for many years to come. In effect, we have discovered yet another group of powerless people upon whom we can dump the consequences of our own waste; those who live in the future and cannot hold us accountable." Al Gore
Please, everyone in support of incineration, come and argue with me in the ecoivy.org forum - I don't want to draw to any hasty conclusions without considering all the facts and hope (for my children's sake) that I am mistaken in my recent findings.
