Nat. Research Council on Incineration

[Evertcc@aol.com]

The reason health effects of incineration are so hard to find is that 
incinerators are so efficient at dispersing pollutants. The only human 
exposures that can be documented will be in workers. It's hardly surprising. 

I noticed those submitting this are in MEDIA RELATIONS. Now tell me how one 
burns vinyl siding or a TV set efficiently or cleanly. I noticed also that 
there was no mention of ASH EMISSIONS. If incinerators are running any 
cleaner it is partly because emission controls are scubbing toxins out of the 
stacks and collecting those in the fly ash, but nobody at the EPA wants to 
talk about ash. 

As the ash "recycling" movement takes hold in the U S, denial continues over 
the growing toxic CONTENT of ash, and over the presence of dioxin and many 
other bizarre organic compounds, none of which are required to be tested for. 
Ash rules right now are a disaster, so there is little basis for giving 
assurances about how "clean" incinerators can be, especially "mass burn" 
units. There is more vinyl in the American waste stream that there has ever 
been and this trend is showing no signs of change for the better. 

In a nutshell, the public will now have closer contact with ash that is 
probably more toxic because of more efficient air pollution controls on 
plants that are the source of that ash.

A PR stone gathers no moss.

Carl Evertson 
Nashville TN