The potential impact of a new waste incineration plant on local dairy and agricultural products

Abstract

In April 2013 a new urban waste incinerator was switched on in Parma (Italy). Since 2011 a surveillance project, consisting of four investigation lines, had been put in place to assess the plant’s potential impact on inhabitants as well as on local dairy and agricultural products. Pollutants’ dispersion and related soil deposit were estimated by means of an atmospheric dispersion model for PM10 which allowed to identify the areas where the impact can be considered significant or negligible. According to the estimated dispersion of pollutants, some agro-zoo technical farms were categorized into “highly/minimally affected” by plant emissions. Due to the limited dimension of the highly impacted area, farms couldn’t be randomly selected. In these farms, several samples of raw milk, hay, tomatoes, cucurbitaceae and wheat where collected. Samples collection had been started before the incinerator went into operation and is currently underway. Samples concentration of Dioxins, Furans, Polychlorobiphenyls, Metals and Non-metals were estimated: at the present it is possible to compare data collected before waste incineration (2011-2012 i.e. ante operam) with that collected in 2013-2014 after incinerator activity started (i.e. post operam). Furthermore a comparison between highly and minimally affected samples can be performed. Pollutants’ concentration changed overtime, but most of the time concentrations were higher in the total amount of ante operam samples. No differences emerged between highly and minimally affected farms either before or after incinerator start-up. Many confounding variables may affect this study: weather changes, species and physiology of the samples, soil composition, anthropization etc. thus, an attempt to identify and assess the main confounders is currently in progress. At the moment, exposition to incinerator emissions has not affected food and feed quality, which could be more sensible to other sources of local pollution.