Dioxin emissions from incinerators have been significantly reduced in recent years, according to a British environmental health expert, Dr Martin Cranfield.
He told a seminar organised by local authorities in Galway that dioxin and furan emissions from municipal waste incineration had fallen from a UK average of about 500 grammes a year in 1996 to an estimated 15 grammes in 2000. The level of dioxin emissions from incinerators was now comparable to those from domestic coal fires.
"Incineration used to produce far more significant quantities of dioxin, and I think this is where incineration has got its bad name as an environmental hazard," he said.
Dr Cranfield is assistant director of the environmental research group at the South East Institute of Public Health, King's College, London. The group is responsible for monitoring air quality in the London area.
He said people worried about the health implications of incinerators should search for information on the Internet.
There was an increased risk of cancer associated with incineration, and it was up to people to decide if that risk was at an acceptably low level. For example, there was a risk of cancer from breathing air contaminated with cadmium emitted as a result of burning batteries, plastics and paint pigments commonly found in domestic waste. This risk could be substantially reduced by removing batteries and other domestic hazardous waste before incineration. "There is a health risk. It is probably not that significant," he said. Meanwhile, a group opposed to the building of an incinerator in Galway has criticised the manner in which the seminar was organised. A spokesman for Galway for a Safe Environment, Dr Conchur O Bradaigh, said the two weeks' notice it was given was too short to allow it to bring in international experts to give their side of the argument.