A new report "Incineration of waste and reported human health effects" has been published and is available at the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA). The work, proposed by SEPA and completed by Health Protection Scotland, was requested to help Scotland's environment watchdog improve the regulation of thermal treatment of waste facilities.

The report looks at a range of previous studies on the health effects of incinerators concluding that due to many uncertainties it is difficult to be definitive about the effects. However it is clear from the studies that any past health effects on populations living near incinerators is likely to have been small, and further, today's incinerators are subject to much stricter legislative controls, they have improved technology and levels of airborne emissions are lower, so any effects would be very small if detectable.

Previously published reviews on this topic have generally focused on health effects associated with incineration of municipal waste. SEPA requested that this report should consider evidence from studies of health effects associated with incineration of clinical, hazardous, industrial and municipal waste streams, particularly non-occupational health effects.

Calum MacDonald, SEPA's Director of Environmental and Organisational Strategy, said: "SEPA acknowledges this review of the currently available evidence on human health effects associated with the thermal treatment of waste.

"The thermal treatment of waste, in the form of incineration, is one of several options for the disposal of waste in the Scottish Government's Zero Waste plan currently out for consultation.

"Present controls are designed to protect human health and are precautionary due to the level of uncertainty. SEPA will continue to apply the precautionary approach when regulating new and existing thermal treatment plants, and will take any new evidence into account."

The report can be downloaded under documents.hps.scot.nhs.uk.

Quelle: Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)

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