>
>Household waste incineration linked to cancer
>ENDS Daily - 13/09/00
>-------------------------
>French scientists have detected elevated cancer rates among
>people living close to a municipal waste incinerator,
>sparking new calls for an end to further expansion of waste
>burning installations. The scientists claim that this is
>one of the first studies to link incinerator dioxin
>emissions with health damage in the general population and
>describe their results as "remarkable".
>
>Published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, the
>epidemiological study focuses on people living close to
>Besançon, eastern France. The town's local waste
>incinerator emitted over 16 nanograms of dioxin per cubic
>metre (ng/m3) of flue gases in 1997. This is 160-fold
>higher than a 0.1 ng/m3 legal limit introduced in France in
>1998, which will apply EU-wide within five years under a
>directive adopted earlier this year (ENDS Daily 14 July).
>
>Dioxin emissions in the region of tens of nanograms per
>cubic metre are typical of older municipal waste
>incinerators, some of which used to emit up to several
>hundred nanograms. Stricter EU controls were introduced in
>the mid-1990s and some older plants have been shut.
>Controls are to be further tightened under the new
>directive, which will cut EU incinerator dioxin emissions
>from 1,500 grams to just 11 grams per year by 2005,
>according to the European Commission.
>
>Meanwhile, many French incinerators are still emitting far
>higher levels of dioxins than the national 0.1 ng/m3 limit,
>says environmental group the National Centre for Independent
>Information on Waste (Cniid). The organisation publicised
>the Besançon epidemiological study yesterday, claiming that
>it showed France's 250 existing incinerators could prove a
>major public health problem. Cniid says that construction
>of between 30 and 50 new municipal waste incinerators is
>currently planned.
>
>Follow-up: American Journal of Epidemiology
>(http://www.jhsph.edu/Publications/JEPI), tel: +1 410 223
>1600; Cniid (http://www.cniid.org), tel: +33 1 55 78 28 60.
>See also French environment ministry's data on dioxin
>emissions from large MSW incinerators
>(http://www.environnement.gouv.fr/actua/cominfos/dosdir/DIRP
>PR/dioxine/tabdioxines.htm#s).
>
>
>
>--
>
>
>************
>This is a message from Elena LYMBERIDI
>Ecological Product Policy Co-ordinator, EU Policy Unit
>European Environmental Bureau,
>Federation of Environmental Citizens Organisations
>34 Boulevard de Waterloo - 1000 Brussels - Belgium
>direct phone : + 32 (0)2 289 1302 - fax : + 32 (0)2 289 10 99
>e-mail : ecoproducts@eeb.org - web-site : www.eeb.org
>************
>
>
>
>
>for questions e-mail pjvdgaag@anped.antenna.nl
>
>
>
>you can look at an archive of our e-mail exchange on
>http://www.egroups.com/group/chip_net
Ted Smith
Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition
Campaign for Responsible Technology
760 N. First Street
San Jose, CA 95112
408-287-6707-phone
408-287-6771-fax
tsmith@igc.org
http://www.svtc.org/svtc/
=========================================
Food for thought:
How Gandhi Defined the Seven Deadly Sins
· Wealth without work
· Pleasure without conscience
· Knowledge without character
· Commerce without morality
· Science without humanity
· Worship without sacrifice
· Politics without principle
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