Hazardous Waste Incineration And Human Health

Incineration has been used widely for waste disposal, including household, hazardous, and medical wasteâ€"but there is increasing public concern over the benefits of combusting the waste versus the health risk from pollutants emitted during combustion. Waste Incineration and Public Health informs the emerging debate with the most up-to-date information available on incineration, pollution, and human healthâ€"along with expert conclusions and recommendations for further research and improvement of such areas as risk communication. The committee provides details on: Processes involved in incineration and how contaminants are released. Environmental dynamics of contaminants and routes of human exposure. Tools and approaches for assessing possible human health effects. Scientific concerns pertinent to future regulatory actions. The book also examines some of the social, psychological, and economic factors that affect the communities where incineration takes place and addresses the problem of uncertainty and variation in predicting the health effects of incineration processes.

This informative publication provides an introduction to the public health implications of hazardous waste incineration. The complexities involved in defining, measuring, and regulating the nation's hazardous waste are discussed, as well as brief descriptions of the hazardous waste incineration process. Summaries of the data base for the incinerator test burns conducted by or for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are presented, along with a description of the four components of risk analysis, sample calculations of both carcinogenic and noncarcinogenic health risk estimates, and the predictive methodology employed in quantitative risk assessment for hazardous waste incinerators. Also discussed are the risk estimates for exposure to hazardous waste incinerator emissions, inhalation exposure to incinerator stack releases of heavy metals and to polychlorinated biphenyl compounds, and ingestion exposure to incinerated releases through the terrestrial food chain. This book will be of interest to local regulatory officials, incineration facility operators, researchers in the hazardous waste areas, and concerned citizens.

Incineration: no other form of hazardous waste disposal has matched its efficiency at volume reduction, and the permanent destruction of organic wastes. That convenience may come at a price, as questions and concerns continue to surround the potential human health impacts and ecosystem effects allegedly caused by incineration. Hazardous Waste Incineration: Evaluating the Human Health and Environmental Risks addresses those concerns by summarizing recent research. Commissioned in part by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, this volume compiles reports and observations from specialists throughout the United States. Fourteen chapters respond to the key questions posed by the researchers: What is known about existing hazardous waste incinerators, and their impacts on human health? Can the impacts of a proposed facility be evaluated before it is built, and if so, how? What is the regulatory compliance record of existing commercial hazardous waste incinerators? What methods can be used to monitor a facility's impacts after it is built? Their response: the most complete treatment of the subject-a timely and controversial topic.

This much-needed book provides an enlightening perspective on the environmental and human health impacts of municipal solid waste (MSW) incineration. Over 100 tables and figures allows speedy access to important data you will refer to again and again. The comprehensive text assesses the human health risks associated with exposure to facility emitted pollutants-especially the highly toxic dioxin. It includes an evaluation of multipathway (inhalation and food chain) exposures. This essential publication also evaluates facility emissions, plausible air concentrations, the potential for deposition of pollutants onto plant, soil, and water surfaces, the movement and accumulation of pollutants through environmental media, and the potential for human exposure. Health Effects of Municipal Waste Incineration is an up-to-date volume which encourages readers to formulate opinions about some of the fundamental issues affecting the management of municipal solid waste. Anyone involved with environmental science, hazardous waste, toxicology, risk analysis and/or environmental engineering will certainly value and utilize this well-written resource.

The author of Impact of Hazardous Waste on Human Health is a public health official with the unique perspective that only insider status can provide. His book is intended for policy makers, environmentalists, toxicologists, public health officials, academic personnel, and health care providers. The author addresses six themes: hazardous waste issues must be more vigorously examined, site remediation is critical, risk management must extend beyond waste site clean up, disease prevention must be a priority, interagency partnership is mandatory, and the best technology must be applied. Johnson also considers the pros and cons of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) also known as the "Superfund." His years of experience with this law, and countless other issues related to hazardous waste, make Impact of Hazardous Waste on Human Health an important and positive contribution.