[Public health risk caused by emissions from refuse incinerators]

An irresponsible "approval on request" in favour of waste incineration written by a consulting committee of the German Federal Board of Physicians has meanwhile been widely distributed both nationally and internationally. The aim of this politically motivated paper is to dramatically increase the present number of 49 waste incinerators in Germany. It is our duty to warn of this intention. Health problems are known to exist both in workers at waste incinerators and in humans living in their vicinity. Furthermore, in the long run negative impact also to ecosystems should be expected from the emissions. Health problems in patients living downwind of waste incinerators repeatedly have been reported on by physicians. "Lack of statistical significance", often used as counter-argument, is only due to absence of funding of comprehensive epidemiological studies in Germany. Analyses of soil samples reveal the pollution from waste incineration. Considering the pre-load of the region, additional emissions caused by waste incineration and other sources have to be assessed. The application of preventive limit values is imperative. The presently used "limit values", being about 100 times too high, bear an unacceptable risk. Therefore, reliable regional registers of emissions have to be established immediately. Limit values continuously have to be adjusted to the progress of scientific knowledge. In this respect it is imperative to consider that the actual composition of emissions is unknown; isolated risk assessment of single compounds underestimates the total risk; the negative impact, e.g. of dioxins, on both the immune and hormone systems occurs at concentrations 100 times lower than those causing carcinogenic effects; the assumption of "threshold values" is obsolete; a considerable lack of knowledge exists about accumulation in food webs and in ecosystems; the demand of preservation of natural, geogenic situations is indispensable in assessments of soil and water pollution. Essential prerequisites for risk assessments of emissions from waste incineration are 1. actual, continual and comprehensive qualitative and quantitative analytical knowledge of the composition of emissions; 2. region-specific meteorologic dispersion models of the emissions; 3. evaluation of the complex mixtures in emissions for their kinetics in and toxicity for ecosystems and humans. Neither of these demands is so far fulfilled. Facing these problems, the present propagation of waste incineration must be stopped. As an alternative, efforts to optimize waste-avoiding and recycling concepts considerably have to be reinforced, and low-risk procedures, like compost and other decomposing methods, hydrogenation or freeze-griding of plastics, have to be widely promoted.