INCINERATION supporters deny any health risk. However, there are numerous instances of releases of pollutants into the environment. A Dundee incinerator (built 2000) breached emission limits in 2007 and 2008. Other modern incinerators breaching limits include Dudley, Dumfries, Wolverhampton and Nottingham. A Dumfries incinerator (2009) had 172 reported emission breaches in its first year.
The Environment Agency says “none of the breaches would have caused harm to human health”. But such assurances are in contrast with the US EPA, which in 2009 and 2011 fined Covanta hundreds of thousands of dollars “for emitting cancer-causing chemicals”. The case of Covanta is disturbing because the company was courted by the Welsh Government, short-listed by Prosiect Gwyrdd. Assurances of no harm are questionable because emissions breaches recorded relate only to substances actually detected and measured. Many are not. It is disturbing that the Environment Agency has been issuing environmental permits to incinerators without separately measuring such particles. One should question also the assertion that whatever the incinerator releases, their contribution to total air pollutants compared to road traffic is “so insignificant as to be hardly discernible”. It is not as if an incinerator is necessary. It isn’t.
Dr Rod Walters, Avenue Crescent, Abergavenny
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