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French incinerator closures due to dioxin emissions
French greens warn on use of incineration
Environmentalist points to lesson in
closure of incinerators servicing Lille
The Irish Times
Wed, Feb 04 1998
Any move by Ireland to increase the use of
incineration to deal with its waste
problems should
proceed with extreme caution in the light of
incinerator-induced dioxin contamination
occurring in
France, according to a leading French
environmentalist.
Commenting after French authorities
ordered the
closure of three municipal incinerators
servicing the
northern city of Lille, Mr Pierre-Emmanuel
Neurohr
said the problem of incinerator-derived
dioxin was an
insidious threat, particularly to
children. Milk on nearby
farms was found to exceed by a factor of
three a limit
above which it must not be sold.
Dioxin is a by-product of herbicide and
bactericide
manufacture and is one of the most toxic
substances
known. It is also produced by incineration
of some
chemicals.
The director of the Centre for Independent
Information
on Waste (CIIW) in Paris accused the French
government of letting the problem fester
similar to the
way asbestos was allowed to cause "terrible
difficulties".
High dioxin levels were found by the
French agriculture
ministry in milk from two farms in the
wind path of the
incinerators. Municipal authorities in
Lille last week
then ordered the closure within a month of
incinerators
at Halluin, Sequedin and Wasquehal. None had
reached its commercial age limit. The move
- the first
time any domestic waste incinerator in
France has been
closed - was described by officials as "a
measure of
extreme precaution".
The levels of the poison found in two
samples were
minute: 14 and 15.9 picogrammes (pg) per
gramme of
fat (one picogramme is one million
millionth of a
gramme). Under a German standard used in
France,
milk nonetheless should contain less than
.9 pg because
of its toxic nature. The public must be
alerted if it
exceeds 3 pg and milk cannot be sold above
5 pg.
Mr Neurohr, when head of Greenpeace France's
campaign against toxic pollution, exposed
an official
report suggesting dioxin during 1994-95
was occurring
at a higher level than previously
believed. It emerged
last September that contamination was
going beyond
milk into dairy products. The CIIW is
campaigning for
the adoption of "allowable daily
intake"(ADI) criteria: a
focus of what people are eating, not
individual
products.
Applying ADI would mean that a 30 kg child
should
not take in more than 30 pg a day.
"Figures suggest
some French children are receiving three
times too
much dioxin per day; in milk, cheese and
dairy
products. This has huge implications for
public health."
France disposes of 40 per cent of its
domestic waste
by incineration, while a policy decision
to cease
land-fill by 2002 is in his view
"tailor-made for
domestic incineration" and reflected in
plans to create
up to 150 additional incinerators. Dumps
will be
allowed where the energy content is taken
out of waste
first, i.e. by burning it or using it to
generate electricity.
"The difficulties are clear when one sees
that domestic
waste has doubled in France in less than a
generation
from 10 million tonnes a year to more than
20 million
tonnes."
The green movement in France considered
the move to
incineration "a catastrophe in the
making". Mr
Neurohr said the lessons should be applied
elsewhere,
including Ireland.
Incineration is considered by many waste
specialists
as the best option in the face of Europe's
growing
waste mountains.
Meanwhile, the director of the EU cohesion
fund, Mr
J.F. Verstrynge, confirmed on an Irish
visit this week
that the European Commission was prepared to
finance a study of waste treatment options
for Dublin.
(Copyright 1998)
----------------------------------------------------------
Jackie Hunt Christensen
Food Safety Project Director
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
2105 1st Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55404
612-870-3424 (direct line)
612-870-4846 (fax)
e-mail: <jchristensen@iatp.org>
IATP main web site: http://www.iatp.org
IATP's Endocrine Disrupter Resource Center: http://www.iatp.org/edrc