Incineration means dioxins, expert says

The Republic is falling into the same trap as the US did during the 1980s, when it believed building incinerators would solve a waste-management crisis, according to an American waste expert.

Incineration combined with industry had a direct link to dioxin levels in food, Prof Paul Connett of St Lawrence University, New York, noted. "There is the lowest level of dioxin in cow's milk here, with the possible exception of New Zealand. Coming on the skirts of the Belgian dioxin fiasco, Ireland is in a perfect position to produce dioxin-free food."

Prof Connett said he was struck by similarities with the US in 1985 and its growing waste mountains. There was talk of recycling and reusing waste in Ireland, but combined with incineration. Burning waste should only be considered after a strong regime of waste reduction, separation, reuse, recycling and composting of biodegradable wastes was in place, he said.

Such alternatives were invariably hampered when large waste volumes were needed for incinerators (which did not obviate the need for landfills). Incinerators should be considered in Ireland after five years, after other sustainable waste practices. Then, he believed, the decision would be not to build them. He said he thought Irish people would mobilise against incinerators, which would promote awareness of the alternatives.

On dioxins, he said the Environmental Protection Agency must encourage clean production within industry to remove toxins at source. Closed-loop chemical treatment technologies could treat noxious wastes with no emissions. "There is no chimney, no stack. It is done chemically in a closed chamber," he said.

The EPA was being disingenuous if it claimed the technology was available to ensure continuous monitoring of dioxins from incinerators. Snapshot tests were the norm, and these were used "naively" to determine annual emissions, he claimed. Where monitoring was done over two weeks, much higher dioxin levels were detected.

On the Kilcock proposal, he said increases in dioxin in milk and meat would be likely. Dioxins also had the ability to reduce the performance of racehorses. The use of "vitrification" in the plant, whereby waste is treated to a higher temperature, would generate only relatively small amounts of energy.

In their environmental impact statement the developers should have looked at potential dioxin exposure in farm animals, he said, as these could be up to 3,000 times higher than in soil.

Nature had incredible mechanisms for concentrating compounds, manifest in the way dioxins arose in fish and grazing animals, he said. This in turn led to build-up in humans. His prime health concern was the likely hormone disruption this caused rather than links with cancer.

Prof Connett is speaking tonight at a public meeting in the Tower Hotel, Waterford, at 8 p.m., to consider the South East Regional Authority's proposal to site an incinerator in the region.