The Government does not intend to review its plans to build large municipal incinerators, despite recent warnings from the US Environmental Protection Agency on heightened fears concerning the toxic effects of dioxin.
Notwithstanding the findings contained in a draft of the US agency's report that cancer risk in some circumstances could be 10 times higher than previously suggested, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Dempsey, said he was confident guidelines for incinerators contained in EU directives would provide sufficient reassurance for the Irish public.
"Any time a person lights up a cigarette or burns rubbish in the back garden, dioxin is emitted," Mr Dempsey said yesterday. It was largely a question of control. His comments came as environmental groups campaigning against incinerators called for the withdrawal of six regional waste plans because of their reliance on incineration.
The Environmental Protection Agency would be monitoring the situation closely in line with EU guidelines, Mr Dempsey added. The Minister must re-evaluate incineration in light of the US report, according to the main group campaigning against a municipal incinerator planned for the south-east.
The South-East Research and Information Group has claimed incorrect assumptions had been made in evaluations of potential impact of incineration within the Irish context. Municipal incinerators with a capacity of 200,000 tonnes a year have been justified on the basis of the "safe" operation of industrial incinerators with a limited waste stream and a capacity of 1,000 tonnes a year, the group's spokesman, Mr Joe Bridges, said.
Recycling targets were also "exaggerated" by including large tonnages of recycled demolition waste, Mr Bridges added. "It is time for the Minister to protect Irish health and agriculture and indicate that a waste policy without incineration will at last be developed."
The findings in an EPA report suggesting 7 per cent of cancer deaths are caused by dioxins "should now be sufficient for the Minister to review and change his policy", Mr Bridges said.
But the consultants advising local authorities on five of the six proposed incinerators have said the impact of dioxins should focus on uncontrolled emissions arising from some industries and indiscriminate burning of waste, and not on modern thermal treatment plants. The Minister has indicated he will evaluate the US report when it is published.
Mr P.J. Rudden, a management waste consultant with M.C. O'Sullivan, said "the emission of dioxins will have a very tenuous link with future thermal treatment in Ireland". The EU and the Government had agreed emissions from the plants would be less than 0.5 per cent of total dioxin emissions to the environment. Thermal treatment was only one part of an integrated approach to Irish waste management.
Concern about dioxins should focus elsewhere, Mr Rudden said, and "lead to better management of uncontrolled emissions from metal industries, coal fires, straw burning, vehicles, smoking and indiscriminate burning of rubbish, which will represent the vast bulk of future dioxin emissions in Ireland".
Dr Conchur O Bradaigh, of Galway for a Safe Environment, said a poll of Galway city and county councillors in the Galway Advertiser indicated the Connacht Waste Plan was a non-runner. He advised other councillors to reconsider their county/ regional waste plans and reject them because of the centrality of incineration.
Although the risk from dioxin varies widely - and may be nearly zero for many - the US findings suggest dioxin contributes to a significant number of cancer deaths, notably of those on high-fat diets. The US government has said, however, that higher dioxin risks should not discourage people from eating nutritious foods and following dietary guidelines emphasising low-fat foods.