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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 1062.026 2006-2008 "The current framework used to assess health effects from incinerators considers local populations but often excludes workers and regional populations... Whether waste incineration poses a health risk has been the subject of continuous scientific debate." http://eetd.lbl.gov/ied/pdf/LBNL-46084.pdf Managing the Health Impacts of Waste Incineration This paper was prepared as a feature article for the journal Environmental Science and Technology July 2000 This work was carried out at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory under the U.S. Department of Energy contract No. DE-AC03-76SF00098 with funding provided in part by the United States Environmental Protection Agency National Exposure Research Laboratory through Interagency Agreement* DW89938190-01-0. 1 The current framework used to assess health effects from incinerators considers local populations but often excludes workers and regional populations Thomas E. McKone, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, California S. Katharine Hammond, University of California, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California Abstract Incineration has emerged over the last century as a viable strategy for (a) reducing the volume of municipal waste, (b) for reducing substantially the volume of chemical and biological hazardous wastes, (c) for destroying medically contaminated hospital waste, and (d) for producing energy. Facing an exponential rise in garbage production, policy-makers in the US selected waste incineration in the 1970s as a waste-management option. By that time European nations had already made a strong commitment to waste incineration. Waste incineration has been employed in some form for centuries. However, in the last several decades, the quantity of material combusted, public concerns about the health and ecological impacts of combustion facilities, the level of environmental control, and the cost of control have all increased. Whether waste incineration poses a health risk has been the subject of continuous scientific debate. Comm No. Ref. To: Ref. Date epg 15 9nnA "older designs, human error, and equipment failure can result in higher- than-normal, short-term emissions that need to be studied further... the fact that ailments may occur infrequently or take years to appear, and the presence of pollution from other sources, make it difficult to determine if waste incineration can be blamed... follow-up studies were not performed to determine if [worker]... exposure caused disease... emissions... during start-up and shutdown ...are likely to be greater. Sudden increases in emissions also can result from maintenance problems, accidents, a change in the composition of the waste being burned, and poor management of the incineration process." hffp://eetd.lbl.gov/ie/pdf/LBNL-46084.pdf Press release from National Research Council, quoted in "Managing the Health Impacts of Waste Incineration" In November 1999, the National Research Council, the operating arm of the U.S. National Academy of Science, released a report on the impact of waste incineration on public health. The report titled 'Waste Incineration and Public Health" was the result of a multi-year study carried out by a multi-disciplinary team of experts and funded by three federal agencies, the U.S. EPA, the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, and the U.S. Department of Energy. This report addressed the relationship between waste incineration and human health. This report provided a number of key findings, among them: 1) When operated property by well-trained employees, modern waste incinerators pose little risk to public health. But older designs, human error, and equipment failure can result in higher- than-normal, short-term emissions that need to be studied further. 2) Based on the very limited studies on associations between incinerator emissions and health effects, no association has yet been made but the fact that ailments may occur infrequently or take years to appear, and the presence of pollution from other sources, make it difficult to determine if waste incineration can be blamed for local health problems. 3) Some studies have shown that workers at municipal waste incinerators, who can be exposed to emissions directly or when doing maintenance, have been exposed to high concentrations of dioxins and toxic metals, particularly lead, cadmium, and mercury, but follow-up studies were not performed to determine if this exposure caused disease. 4) Better epidemiological research is needed to assess the health risks of exposure to pollutants from incinerators, including studies that evaluate combined data from all incinerators in a particular area and that compare findings from similar facilities located in different regions studies of poorly performing facilities would be more valuable. The report also calls for better data on the level of emissions that occur during start-up and shutdown, when they are likely to be greater. Sudden increases in emissions also can result from maintenance problems, accidents, a change in the composition of the waste being burned, and poor management of the incineration process. Furnaces designed for municipal-waste incineration prior to the mid-1980s are less efficient at combustion than newer designs. Modern plants often use auxiliary burners to maintain an optimal temperature during start-up and shutdown, though increased emissions can still occur. But with current technology, incinerators can achieve nearly complete combustion of the burnable portion of waste under normal operating conditions, emitting low amounts of unhealthy pollutants. In addition, using highly trained employees can help ensure maximum combustion efficiency and proper operation of emission- control devices. "Neighbors of incineration sites or leaking underground storage tanks are at a significantly increased risk for developing bladder cancer ...These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary " http://www. medpagetoday. com/HematologyOncology/OtherCancers/tb/1081 AUA: Storage Tank and Incinerator Pollution Linked to Bladder Cancer By Neil Osterweil, Senior Associate Editor, MedPage Today Published: May 23, 2005 Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD, Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. SAN ANTONIO, May 23-Neighbors of incineration sites or leaking underground storage tanks are at a significantly increased risk for developing bladder cancer, University of Michigan researchers reported here. Action Points • Advise patients of the potential risks of living near a polluted site. • Pay special attention to hematuria occurring in patients who live in areas where there is the potential for high levels of pollution from storage tanks or incinerators. • This study was published as an abstract and presented at a conference either as an oral or poster presentation. These data and conclusions should be considered to be preliminary as they have not yet been reviewed and published in a peer-reviewed publication. In a study of cancer records on nearly 178,000 Michigan residents, those who lived near polluted sites were at greater risk for having bladder cancer, Rabii Madi, M.D., and colleagues reported over the weekend at the American Urological Association meeting here. For all patients except children under 15 years, the risk for cancer of the bladder and urinary tract increased proportionally with the density of the pollution in their area. Minorities and people in low- income households were also at greater risk. The results suggested that ground water contamination or environmental pollution from other sources is putting neighbors of polluted sites at significant risk for developing urinary tract cancers and perhaps other malignancies. "Specific pollution sources and aggregate pollution density can increase the risk of bladder cancer incidence, particularly in older individuals," Dr. Madi and colleagues wrote in a poster presentation. "Regions with large numbers of [leaking underground storage tanks] and incineration sites, as well as high pollution density, should be studied to determine whether disproportionate minority or low income populations reside in these communities and whether more aggressive tumors develop under prolonged pollutant exposure," they added. Other studies have indicated a link between exposure to chemicals and bladder cancer, but the source of many types of chemical exposures is unclear. In an attempt to spot patterns of exposure, the investigators collected data on cancer incidence in Michigan in five years: 1987, 1990, 1993, 1995, and 2000. Patients were grouped by age, and the records were aggregated into zip codes. They then merged the data with information from databases on natural resources and environmental lawsuits. Two pollution sources leaking underground storage tanks (e.g., for gasoline, diesel, or oil) and incineration sites correlated positively with increased bladder cancer risk. The authors did not find a relationship between proximity to landfills and cancer risk, however. Living close to an incineration site carried an OR of 1.5 (p = 0.01) The odds ratio for living in proximity to leaky storage tanks was 1.2 (p = 0.05). The authors also found that for every age group except children younger than 15 years old, the increasing incidence of bladder cancer directly correlated with increasing pollution density. Race and income were also significant predictors of bladder cancer, with minorities and people with lower incomes being at greater risk, Dr. Madi at al reported. Urinary bladder cancer is the fourth most common cancer in men and the 10th in women. It is most commonly diagnosed as painless hematuria, which can be gross and present throughout micturition. Primary source: 100th annual meeting of the American Urological Association, abstract 182. { "Increased use of incineration to reduce waste products results in higher cadmium and other trace metals in diets of Japanese people." http://www, sciencedirect.com/science?-ob=Artic]eURL&_udi=B6VB5-43YY9KR- C&_user-10& rdoc=1& fmt=&_orig=search& sort=d&view=c& acct=0000050221&-version=l& urlVersion=0&-usedd=l0&md5=3db9e2ff0357ld3320830ca140ac6018 Environmental Pollution Volume 115. Issue 2 December 2001, Pages 253-260 Evaluation of cadmium and other metal losses from various municipal wastes during incineration disposal F. -S. Zhang•, S. 4. Yamasaki, M. Nanzyo and K. Kimura Graduate School of Agricultural science, Tohoku University, Sendai 981-8555, Japan Received 7 August 2000; accepted 15 January 2001 Available online 13 September 2001. Abstract The Japanese intake much more Cd through food than people in other countries, this may be partly caused by the activity of municipal waste incineration disposal. The present study was carried out to examine the behavior of Cd and to identify the other lost metals during municipal waste incineration. Thirty-eight waste samples, including food scraps (FS), animal wastes (AW), horticulture wastes (HW) and sewage sludges (SS) were collected from various places in Japan. Treatment temperatures of 500, 850, and 1000°C were conducted to these samples in laboratory, and thirty-nine kinds of metals were examined. The results showed that average Cd losses were 69% (2.4 mg kg-') and 74% (2.6 mg kg -1) at 850 and 1000°C, respectively. Furthermore, the losses of 20 other metals were also found, i.e. Sri lost at 500°C, K, Mg, Na, Bi, Cr, Ge, Li, Pb, Sri, TI, Zn lost at 850°C, and nine more metals, Al, Be, Cs, Nb, Sb, Sr, Th, Y, Zr lost at 1000°C. The lost metals were considered to be transferred into the combustion flue gas, mainly in the forms of metallic chloride compounds, e.g. CdC12, SnC14, SnC12, ZnC12, PbC12, etc. On the other hand, no significant losses for Ca, Fe, Ag, Ba, Co, Cu, Ga, Hf, Mn, Mo, Ni, Rb, Sc, Ta, Ti, U, V, W were found at 0.05 probability level. Total metal losses could be calculated at 9.9 and 20 g kg-', in which major metal JAI, K, Mg, Na) losses were 9.5, 19 g kg _1 and minor and trace metal losses were 0.4, 0.6 g kg- at 850 and 1000°C, respectively. Among the four types of waste materials, Cd losses were 0.8-3.7 mg kg-', occupied about 60-80% at 850°C, and 0.9-3.9 mg kg -1, occupied about 65-85% at 1000°C. The total major metal losses from the four types of waste materials could be calculated at 6.5-15 g kg -1 at 850°C, and 11-31 g kg-' at 1000°C, minor and trace metal losses were 0.03-1.3 g kg-' at 850°C, and 0.3-1.5 g kg-' at 1000°C, respectively. Abstract Increased use of incineration to reduce waste products results in higher cadmium and other trace metals in diets of Japanese people.