Dangerous Releases from Incineration

Health Care Without Harm, the Campaign for Environmentally Responsible Health Care 2001

DIOXIN. Dioxin is one of the most toxic chemicals known to science. While exposure of the general population occurs through the ingestion of many common foods, children exposed in utero during critical periods of development appear to be the most sensitive and vulnerable to the effects of dioxin. Dioxin exposure has been linked to disrupted sexual development, birth defects and damage to the immune system. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), the U.S. EPA and the National Toxicology Program have all classified dioxin as a known human carcinogen. Because of its potential to cause harm, dioxin is one of 12 chemicals to be eliminated under a new United Nations Treaty on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs).

MERCURY. Mercury is a potent neurotoxin, which means it attacks the body’s central nervous system; it can also harm the brain, kidneys and lungs. It can cross the blood-brain barrier as well as the placenta. If mercury-containing items are sent to an incinerator, mercury will contaminate the air. Airborne mercury then enters a global distribution cycle in the environment, contaminating fish and wildlife and the humans who eat them. Mercury pollution has led to warnings against eating fish caught in some or all of the bodies of water in 41 U.S. states.

HYDROGEN CHLORIDE/HCL. Poorly maintained or designed medical waste incinerators are notorious for emissions of corrosive acids into local communities. The emission of these acids damages local buildings and endangers the health of people in neighboring communities who breathe the fumes, increasing the rates and severity of respiratory problems, including asthma.[1]

OTHER TOXINS. In addition to dioxin, mercury and HCl, medical waste incinerators discharge an array of other pollutants, including numerous toxic organic compounds, metals and in some circumstances, radiation.

TOXIC ASH. Modern incinerators trap some toxic metals in the “fly ash” in pollution-control devices. The better the technology, the more toxic the fly ash. Typically, fly ash requires special disposal in expensive hazardous waste landfills. However, fly ash is often mixed with the resulting bottom ash to “dilute” the toxics so it can pass hazardous waste tests and be disposed of in ordinary dumps or even “recycled” into products such as road materials. The fly and bottom ash contain toxic metals as well as dioxins and furans. A hundred times more dioxin may leave the incinerator in the fly ash than is emitted into the air from the smoke stacks.[2]

References and Notes

[1]     Neil Carman, Director of the Lone Star (Texas) Chapter of the Sierra Club, has written a detailed HCl strategy. Contact HCWH.

[2]     Essential Action, PO Box 19405, Washington DC; www.essentialaction.org

source: STERICYCLE: LIVING UP TO ITS MISSION? AN ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH ASSESSMENT OF THE NATION’S LARGEST MEDICAL WASTE COMPANY Prepared for Health Care Without Harm, the Campaign for Environmentally Responsible Health Care. Mar01 http://www.noharm.org/library/docs/Stericycle_Living_Up_to_Its_Mission.pdf