Madam, – The dangerous fire at the closed Kerdiffstown, Co Kildare landfill site, as reported by Frank McDonald (Home News, January 28th), is a salutary call to the Minister and Department of the Environment to recognise the value of properly run, controlled high-temperature incineration of waste rather than the protracted out-of-control low temperature burning now occurring at the landfill site.
Low temperature burning of waste produces a wide range of toxic chemicals in the emitted gases and not just sulphur dioxide as we are told is being monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency. The complexity of the chemical composition of gaseous emissions in the current situation depends on the type of waste and the oxygen concentration.
An obvious component of the emissions from low temperature burning is the group of very toxic, carcinogenic chemicals known as the dioxins.
Incineration of waste reduces the spectrum of toxic chemicals including the dioxins to infinitesimally low levels, that is, to levels which do not cause any significant risk to health. – Yours, etc,