Please click the following links:
O CERTIFICATES FOR
PERSONALIZATION O
O HEDONIC COOKBOOK O
O SEPARATION
OF CHURCH AND STATE POSTERS O
INCINERATORS
Emissions Discharge Daily Averages are given in PPMC. PPMC = Parts Per Million Corrected to 7% Oxygen. The atmosphere contains 21% oxygen by volume, so multiply these figures by three. Only three contaminants are monitored for: Carbon Monoxide [172 TPYA], Nitrogen Oxides [502 TPYA] and Sulfur Dioxide [292 TPYA]. TPYA = Tons Per Year Allowed into the air by State Pollution Control Hearings Boards.
Absent from
reports are the amount of emissions discharge of:
Arsenic [.034 TPYA]
Beryllium [.00068 TPYA]
Cadmium [.2 TPYA]
Carbon Dioxide
Chlorides [292 TPYA] includes Vinyl Chloride
Chromium [.2 TPYA]
Copper [.17 TPYA]
Dioxins and Furans [.000006 TPYA]
Fluorides
Hydrocarbons (Benzene, Ethylene) [3 TPYA]
Lead [3.4 TPYA]
Mercury [1.5 TPYA]
Nickel [.14 TPYA]
PAH [.02 TPYA]
Particulates [68 TPYA]
PCB [.00019 TPYA]
Selenium [.0068 TPYA]
Tin [.8 TPYA]
Vanadium [.01 TPYA]
Zinc [6.8 TPYA]
All are known to be discharged from incinerators. In brackets next to each toxic substance is the Tons Per Year Allowed for each into the air by State Pollution Control Hearings Boards, but none of these are monitored for.
Even in minute quantities, each substance is toxic. Some are cumulative and some are already known to be carcinogens. What about synergistic effects of simultaneous exposure to multiple toxins? Will the risks multiply? What are the effects on the immune system, chromosomes, genes and those not yet born?
Modern incinerators remove 99 percent of weight-based
particles emitted. Nevertheless,
incinerators fail to filter out the smallest, most harmful particles, which
weigh virtually nothing, yet make up most emissions. The smaller the particles, the more inflammatory and toxic they
are. Breathing in these particles can
cause chronic inflammation, which can lead to cancer, blood clots and other
chronic health effects. The U. S.
National Academy of Sciences has stated that weight-based emission filtration
levels are effectively useless. The
method has prevailed because there is no way to count the number of particles
emitted.
Incinerators produce ash, which has to be buried in landfills. Incinerators are a foolish technology based on a childish notion that if you burn something, it disappears.
What kind of
legacy for the future will this be?
It took seventeen generations to destroy the Roman Empire by ingestion from lead lined aqueducts and lead eating, drinking utensils. Will we survive that long?
The air becomes saturated, fallout contaminates the earth and water. Our watershed, the snow in the mountains, is downwind. Contaminated with these toxic substances, the runoff flows to rivers, lakes and recharges the water table aquifer. Besides the direct intake by animals and humans, this contamination of air and water is absorbed by vegetation. Contaminated vegetation that kills bees and other pollinators. Vegetation that would ordinarily give off oxygen. Vegetation alone has the unique ability to convert inorganic minerals absorbed from the soil and water into organic forms that animals and humans can use.
Precautionary
Principle
When an activity raises threats of harm
to human health or the environment,
precautionary measures should be taken
even if some cause and effect
relationships are not fully established
scientifically.
“INCINERATED GARBAGE ASH IS FOUND TO HAVE SEVERAL TOXIC SUBSTANCES.” New York Times, November 26, 1987
“INCINERATORS: A PROBLEM, NOT A SOLUTION.”
New York Times, September 21, 1991
“INCINERATORS BECOME AN OUTMODED TECHNOLOGY.”
New York Times, February 14, 1992
UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT
RULES THAT ASH FROM INCINERATORS IS A HAZARDOUS MATERIAL. May 2, 1994
“INCINERATION AND DEATH BY
DIOXIN. DESCRIBED AS THE MOST TOXIC
CHEMICAL KNOWN….” The Ecologist, July‑August 1997
“INCREASED MERCURY EXPOSURE
IN INHABITANTS LIVING IN THE VICINITY OF A HAZARDOUS WASTE INCINERATOR: A 10‑YEAR
FOLLOW‑UP.” Archives of Environmental Health, March‑April 1998
“U. K. [UNITED
KINGDOM] GOVERNMENT’S NEW FONDNESS FOR INCINERATOR
BUILDING…WILL LOCK THE COUNTRY INTO A TECHNOLOGY WHICH DESTROYS HUMAN HEALTH
AND THE ENVIRONMENT, AND WHICH OTHER COUNTRIES ARE MOVING AWAY FROM AS FAST AS
THEY CAN. AFTER 10 YEARS’ DETAILED
ASSESSMENT OF THE EVIDENCE, THE U. S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
ANNOUNCED THAT DIOXINS FROM INCINERATOR ASH POSE A TENFOLD GREATER THREAT TO
HUMAN HEALTH THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT.” The Ecologist, October 2000
“INCINERATORS HAVE BEEN
PINPOINTED AS THE MAJOR, IF NOT LARGEST, SOURCES OF TOXIC EMISSIONS INTO THE
ENVIRONMENT, INCLUDING HEAVY METALS AND THE ULTRA TOXIC DIOXINS AND FURANS,
WHICH ARE KNOWN CARCINOGENS.
COMMUNITIES LIVING AROUND AND DOWNWIND OF INCINERATORS IN COUNTRIES LIKE
JAPAN AND FRANCE HAVE HIGHER RATES OF CANCER, BIRTH DEFECTS AND INFANT
MORTALITY, COMPARED TO INCINERATION‑FREE AREAS.” Environment Bulletin, February 18, 2001
“E. U. [EUROPEAN
UNION] COURT RAPS FRANCE OVER WASTE INCINERATION
DIRECTIVES.” European Report, June 22, 2002
“THE U. S. COURT OF
APPEALS FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT RULED ON FEBRUARY 24 [2004] THAT THE EPA [ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY] FAILED TO SET POLLUTION STANDARDS PROPERLY UNDER THE FEDERAL CLEAN AIR
ACT….” Waste News, March 1, 2004
“WASTE
INCINERATORS GENERATE POLLUTION AND PLACE HUGE FINANCIAL BURDENS ON HOST
COMMUNITIES. HIGH CAPITAL COSTS,
TONNAGE SHORTFALLS AND EXPENSIVE POLLUTION CONTROL EQUIPMENT HAMPER LOWER‑COST
OPTIONS SUCH AS RECYCLING.”
Waste News, April 26, 2004
INCINERATORS
by Robert A. Kroboth www.citizengadfly.com
Please print and distribute copies of this publication and put this
link on your web site.
Please click the following links:
O CERTIFICATES FOR
PERSONALIZATION O
O HEDONIC COOKBOOK O
O SEPARATION
OF CHURCH AND STATE POSTERS O