Health risks of air pollution from incinerators: a perspective

Abstract

This paper offers a perspective on the health impacts of air pollution from incinerators by making a number of compari sons in terms of emissions, concentrations, damages and dam age costs. The latter are estimated by an impact pathway anal ysis, tracing the fate of a pollutant from source to receptors. Linearity is assumed for the increase of damages with incre mental exposure. The monetary valuation is based on a valu ation of mortality in terms of years of life lost, rather than sim ply the number of premature deaths. The method is applied to the incineration of municipal solid waste (MSW) with emissions equal to the regulations proposed by the European Commission in 1994 for typical per capita MSW production. Even if all MSW is incinerated (in accordance with these reg ulations), the total health damage costs are relatively minor. Also, the impacts of dioxins and carcinogenic metals are small compared to those of particles, NOx and SOx.