Fwd: new dioxin limits in UK will close some incinerators

[Pawel Gluszynski <uugluszy@cyf-kr.edu.pl>]

>   The Daily Telegraph September  26, 1995,  New limits on
>pollution  for industry Charles Clover  MORE than a kilogram of
>dioxins, some of the world's most toxic chemicals, is emitted by
>industry every year, according to a study by the  Pollution
>Inspectorate. Dioxins are chemicals, formed when  chlorine
>compounds are burned, which the Government recognises are capable
>in very small doses of causing cancer. From the end of next year
>the legal limit for industrial emissions has been set at a
>thousand millionth of a gram per cubic metre of air. Dioxins have
>also been implicated by the US Environmental Protection Agency in
>the lowering of children's IQ, the reduction of sperm counts and
>damage to the immune system but the Government is suspicious of
>this data. The inventory of dioxin emissions to air compiled by
>the inspectorate shows that around half the  emissions in Britain
>are emitted by municipal waste incinerators, many of which  will
>be forced to close when the new limits come in next year.  They
>are followed by clinical waste incineration at hospitals, sinter
>plants in the iron  and steel industry, burning of domestic coal
>and crematoriums. The inspectorate  said that the average dioxin
>levels were well within safety limits for health, but it was
>requiring emissions to be reduced from next year on a
>precautionary basis. It said yesterday that the changes would
>reduce emissions from municipal  incinerators by up to 90 per
>cent.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: September 26, 1995
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