Incineration And Human Health State Of Knowledge Of The Impacts Of Waste Incinerators On 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.

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 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.

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.

This title includes a number of Open Access chapters. This new compendium provides a nuanced look at monitoring, measuring, and modeling air quality pollution in conjunction with its effects on public health and the environment. Air pollution has been proven to be a major environmental risk to health. Protecting and improving air quality requires knowledge about the types and levels of pollutants being emitted. It also requires the best possible measurement and monitoring capabilities. The chapters in this volume serve as a foundation for monitoring, measuring, and modeling air pollution.

Solid Waste Management is one of the essential obligatory functions of the Urban Local Bodies/Municipal Corporation. This service is falling too short of the desired level of efficiency and satisfaction resulting in problems of health, sanitation and environmental degradation. Due to lack of serious efforts by town/city authorities, garbage and its management has become a tenacious problem. Moreover, unsafe disposal of garbage and wastewater, coupled with poor hygiene, is creating opportunities for transmission of diseases. Solutions to problems of waste management are available. However, a general lack of awareness of the impact of unattended waste on people’s health and lives, and the widespread perception that the solutions are not affordable have made communities and local authorities apathetic towards the problems. The aim of this Book is to bring together experiences reported from different geographical regions and local contexts. It consolidates the experiences of the experts from different geographical locations viz., Japan, Portugal, Columbia, Greece, India, Brazil, Chile, Australia and others.