Download PDF : NYWAG-Health-Risks
April, 2013:
The Health Effects of Waste Incinerators
Download PDF : IncineratorReport_v3
Waste incinerators inquiry into link with infant deaths
http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/districtnews/9079433.print/
Waste incinerators inquiry into link with infant deaths
9:09am Saturday 11th June 2011
HEALTH chiefs are to investigate infant deaths in areas where there are incinerators after figures showed a spike in babies dying near the facilities.
Environmental campaigners claim emissions from incinerators are hazardous and say figures relating to Bolton back that up.
Figures from the Office of National Statistics show a jump in infant deaths in Great Lever — where the Raikes Lane waste plant incinerator is based. The Royal Bolton Hospital is also on the edge of the ward boundary.
The Health Protection Agency (HPA) does not believe incinerators cause “significant risk”, but is now looking to reassure the public with a special study.
A spokesman said: “Well run and regulated modern municipal waste incinerators are not a significant risk to health. However, we recognise that there are real public concerns about this issue.
“The HPA continually seeks to review and extend the evidence ‘base’ on which it bases its advice.
“We are in discussions with Imperial College London about a potential study into birth outcomes around municipal incinerators and a detailed proposal for what would be a complex study is being drawn up.”
Campaigner Michael Ryan, from Shrewsbury, has fought against incincerators for nine years after the mystery death of his three-month-old daughter.
His son also developed leukaemia and died at the age of 20.
Mr Ryan, aged 62, said: “I believe incinerators do affect health and this needs looking into urgently. What I have found in Bolton suggests incinerators are having an impact in the town.”
According to official figures, 11.3 babies die per 1,000 live births in Great Lever — more than double the borough average of 5.3.
The lowest rate in Bolton is 2.3.
Bolton Green Party member Alan Johnson said: “We welcome this subject being researched, but want to see a stop to using incinerators.”
However NHS Bolton has warned against breaking down the data to ward level.
A spokesman said: “Every infant death is a tragedy, but fortunately the numbers are relatively small.
“This means any analysis of individual wards is not robust enough to show real differences between areas.
“The causes are complex and influenced by many factors, such as deprivation and the mother’s age, ethnicity and health.
“Bolton’s infant death rate has fallen in recent years, but reducing it and improving the health of mothers and children remains a key priority.”
A spokesman for Viridor, which operates the incinerator at Raikes Lane, said the facility played an important role in waste management.
He added: “Most of the emissions from the stack are made up of carbon dioxide and water and trace levels of other substances “The EU Waste Incineration Directive sets stringent environmental standards, with low emissions limits ensuring no significant impacts on health or the environment.”
© Copyright 2001-2013 Newsquest Media Group
UK Health Research
http://ukhr.eu/incineration/selchp.htm
SELCHP & Infant Death Rate Changes Graph |
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This graph illustrates the changes in Infant Death Rates in three Boroughs exposed to emissions from the SELCHP incinerator located in South Bermondsey, London. Note that Wandsworth is mainly “upwind” of SELCHP and therefore relatively free from emissions. See Japanese study of infant deaths around 63 incinerators which concluded: “Our study shows a peak-decline in risk with distance from the municipal solid waste incinerators for infant deaths and infant deaths with all congenital malformations combined.” Click the graph to see it at a larger size. |
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Incinerator fumes link to infant deaths
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/5688/Incinerator-fumes-link-to-infant-deaths
Incinerator fumes link to infant deaths
HUNDREDS of baby deaths a year are being linked to pollution emitted by public waste incinerators.
By: Lucy Johnston and Martyn Halle
Published: Sun, April 29, 2007
The Edmonton incinerator highlighted in the report
Researchers have established a significantly higher death rate among children up to one year old when they live under smoke from an incinerator chimney.
There is a lower death rate for children who live out of the path of incinerator emissions.
The report comes after a detailed analysis of death rates across the country.
Dr Dick van Steenis, a retired GP who helped head the study, said: “The incinerators are burning all sorts of material from domestic waste to hazardous chemical and radioactive waste.
“The danger comes from the particles released into the atmosphere. They are of a size that can be easily inhaled into the lung where they lodge and cause damage to the body.”
The most damaging particle, known as PM 2.5, is particularly harmful to youngsters he said. “Newborn babies are more likely to succumb to damage from chemical pollutants in these inhaled particles.” He added: “Around every single incinerator, infant mortality rates, asthma rates and autism rates are sky-high.
“That’s if you live under the smoke stream from the chimney. In areas nearby which don’t get the smoke, the death rate is either at the national average or lower.”
The data has been collected from the latest official statistics covering the years 2003 to 2005.
Enfield in north London has the UK’s largest incinerator at Edmonton. The death rate for babies up one year old in west of the borough is virtually nil.
But in eastern Enfield, which sits downwind of the incinerator and is exposed to smoke from the chimney, the death rate is between 10 and 12 per thousand of population. The national average death rate for babies up to a year is 5.2 per thousand.
Dr van Steenis said that he had accounted for other factors that could increase the death rate such as social deprivation. He pointed out, for example, that “leafy middle-class areas” of west London were affected by emissions from a big incinerator at Colnbrook near Slough. In some parts around this plant infant mortality rates are treble the national average.
“We compared those areas with nearby well-to-do wards that didn’t get emissions and they were significantly lower than the national average.”
Professor Vyvyan Howard, an expert on environmental pollution from the University of Ulster, said dioxins released in the burning of rubbish had been shown to be cancer causing.
He said that while incinerator filters take out 99 per cent of particles, it is the ultra fine one per cent – the PM 2.5s – that can have chronic effects on health.
London Waste, which owns the Edmonton incinerator, said it had not seen the van Steenis report. A spokesman said: “We use a proven technology with a track record of safe operation and it is recognised throughout Europe as a safe and efficient method of energy generation.
“There is no consistent evidence that our facilities cause adverse health effects.
“We continually monitor particulates such as PM 2.5s and the levels released are lower than the maximum permitted.”
Emissions from a mass-burn incinerator at Capel become a major concern for those living within 16 miles due north, north-east and east of the site
Download PDF : CAG_infant_deaths_report
Tobacco and roadside pollution more dangerous than bird flu
Friday, 12 April, 2013, 12:00am
Business
LAI SEE
Howard Winn
Given the rising concern over bird flu, it is worth recalling that there are other bigger killers in Hong Kong. In the past two weeks in which nine deaths have been recorded, Hong Kong’s dirty air has led to 123 avoidable deaths. This is using the Hedley Environmental Index, which calculates there were an average 3,200 avoidable deaths a year in the past five years on account of roadside emissions.
Smoking is an even bigger killer. The University of Hong Kong estimates 7,000 people a year die due to smoking, or an average of 269 every two weeks.
These two sources alone do far more damage than bird flu yet seem to raise far less alarm in the minds of legislators and government. This is why it is particularly galling that there was no increase in the tax on tobacco in this year’s budget. A packet of Marlboro Light costs HK$50 in Hong Kong, HK$76 in Singapore and HK$139 in Brisbane. Increasing tax is considered to be one of the biggest deterrents to smoking among young people, even by the tobacco industry.
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Have you got any stories that Lai See should know about? E-mail them to howard.winn@scmp.com [2]
Source URL (retrieved on Apr 12th 2013, 6:21am): http://www.scmp.com/business/article/1212517/tobacco-and-roadside-pollution-more-dangerous-bird-flu
Links:
[1] http://Knowyourmeme.com
[2] mailto:howard.winn@scmp.com
Waste and Climate Change
Download PDF : Waste&ClimateChange
Waste to Biofuel and Chemicals Project Funded in Hawaii
8 April 2013
A zero waste biofuel and high protein feed program in Hilo, Hawaii has been awarded $200,000 by the state Department of Agriculture at a special open house event at the USDA Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center (PBARC).
According to the state the PBARC, together with BioTork Hawaii have invested over $1 million developing an economically sustainable zero waste conversion project, which produces biofuel and high protein animal feed from unmarketable papaya.
BioTork is a Florida based company focused on the development of microbial strains capable of producing bio-based chemical commodities such as lipids, alcohol fuels, enzymes, polymers and other valuable compounds from affordable and renewable organic feedstock.
The conversion process is claimed to take 14 days to cycle in a heterotrophic environment, meaning no sunlight is needed using organically optimised algae/fungi developed and patented by BioTork.
According to Governor Neil Abercrombie the state’s $200,000 investment will assist PBARC in moving the project to pilot scale as a prelude to commercial production.
The State of Hawaii’s Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) will become a venture partner to globally export the rapid conversion technology in association with PBARC and BioTork Hawaii.
“With this technology, farmers can turn agricultural waste into an additional revenue stream, and local production of biofuel can lower dependence on Hawaii’s import of fossil fuels,” commented Abercrombie.
“Aside from the benefit of producing biofuel, this technology has the ability to create another revenue stream for papaya and other tropical agriculture farmers. Local high protein feed production – another by-product of this process – can greatly benefit cattle, hog, chicken and aquaculture farms through competitive market pricing,” continued the Governor.
The state said that it also hopes to develop a long-term revenue generator as a partner exporting this technology and projected that it could create more than 1000 jobs at full scale.
Feedstocks
While papaya was chosen as the initial feedstock, it was claimed that the technology can be applied to any plant material as a carbon source. In Hawaii, other identifiable feedstocks are unmarketable sweet potato, sugar cane, mango, albizia and glycerol.
According to James Nakatani, executive director of the ADC, the development is a major breakthrough that focuses on key components hampering the sustainability efforts of other microorganism based biofuel projects.
“These obstacles include the high cost of feedstock. Approximately 70% of the cost for production is consumed in this area. Using unmarketable plant and other waste materials drastically reduces this cost driver,” he explained.
“While past lab projects have not translated into robust performances when scaled-up, BioTork’s solution promotes rapid and dynamic evolution of microorganisms that are robust even in ‘suboptimal’ conditions,” continued the executive director.
The project will use the research and development funds will be used for customising feedstock formulations to create a zero waste conversion technological library for Hawaii which it can export and sell to other states and countries.
Read More
Bacteria that Turn Waste to Energy in Microbial Fuel Cells Studied
Microorganisms which consume waste while generating electricity in a microbial fuel cell are being studied by researchers at Arizona State University’s Biodesign Institute.
First Waste to Biofuel Demonstration Plant for Abengoa
Abengoa has opened a demonstration facility which will process 25,000 tonnes per year of waste into 1.5 million litres of bioethanol in Salamanca, Spain.
A forum on incineration
Thursday, 11 April, 2013, 12:00am
Business
LAI SEE
Howard Winn howard.winn@scmp.com
A forum on incineration
Incineration is a sensitive topic these days. The government has for the moment put on hold plans to build one on the island of Shek Kwu Chau near Lantau. There has been growing opposition around the world to traditional mass burn incinerators, which many see as a threat to the environment and public health. There are those who maintain that modern incinerators are safe. Others hold that plasma gasification is a cleaner technology and safer from a public health perspective. All this and more can be discussed at a Public Forum on Thermal Technology for Waste Management in Metropolises, which is being held at the Convention and Exhibition Centre on May 7.
It’s being organised by Professor Jonathan Wong the director of the unfortunately named Sino-Forest Applied Research Centre for Pearl River Delta Environment, at Baptist University. Sino-Forest, it will be recalled, is being investigated for fraud and filed for bankruptcy protection in Canada last year.
There will be a panel of five speakers: Professor Nickolas Themelis, chair, Waste-to-Energy Research and Technology Council, US; Professor Umberto Arena, chair, Specialist Group on Waste to Energy, IWWG, Second University of Naples; Peter Simoes, technical director, Afval Energie Bedrijf, the Netherlands; Dr Lee Potts, technical manager (energy) AECOM; and Elvis Au, assistant director of Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department.
Source URL (retrieved on Apr 11th 2013, 5:18am): http://www.scmp.com/business/article/1211726/why-are-london-barristers-calling-hong-kong-treasure-island