Press Release – 06 July, 2001
Civil society victory for protecting
community health
Pietermaritzburg,
South Africa: - Considering the dangers faced by communities as
a result of medical waste incineration and the fact that there has been
increasing public opposition to incinerators, groundWork together
with the Environmental Justice Networking Forum (EJNF), Wildlife and Environment
Society of SA (WESSA) and Earthlife Africa commend Compass Waste Services
for selecting autoclaving above incineration for their proposed medical
waste facility. At a meeting held at Hage Hall in Hillcrest yesterday,
Compass Waste announced that it was proposing to develop a large autoclaving
facility to treat medical waste generated in KwaZulu-Natal. Compass
Waste said they had chosen autoclaving because it was far less polluting
than incineration.
The trend worldwide away
from incineration is well documented. Statistics show that in the U.S.A
alone, at least 280 incinerator proposals were abandoned between 1985
and 1988 due to public opposition. In Australia, in the past 10-15
years every attempt to site a hazardous waste incinerator has failed,
due to public opposition.
This bold move by Compass
Waste to consider autoclaving is a sign that companies are noting South
African civil society’s real concerns about the health and environmental
hazards posed by incinerators (see attachment).
Autoclaving is a common
process which uses steam to sterilise and disinfect contaminated materials.
If hospital waste is properly segregated before autoclaving, no harmful
emissions will result from the process.
A spokesperson for groundWork,
Llewellyn Leonard, has commended both the government and industry in shifting
towards alternative technology. “We have to make people’s constitutional
right to live in a clean and safe environment a priority, and this shift
by government and industry is giving meaning to this constitutional right,”
he said.
According to EJNF, this
move will no doubt protect community health since autoclaving reducers
health threatening pollutants that would be released into the environment
by an incinerator. “There is not one hospital incinerator in KwaZulu-Natal
that is able to meet environmental requirements due to government’s failure
to monitor and enforce laws governing incineration,” said Zanele Mngoma,
provincial coordinator of EJNF.
Enver Domingo, a member
and advisor to WESSA on medical waste, who spent many years in Canada
as a medical safety officer at Toronto hospital, advised WESSA that this
move would prevent the contamination of the environment by harmful pollutants
such as dioxins, furans, metals and acidic gases which would normally
be emitted by an incinerator.
“These emissions have serious
adverse consequences on worker safety, public health and the environment,
as was has been indicated in the recent Greenpeace report titled - Incineration
and Human Health - State of knowledge of the Impacts of Waste Incinerators
on Human Health,” said WESSA’s spokesperson Di Dold. (See www.groundwork.org.za/wed.htm
)
Over 200 studies conducted
worldwide have shown links between incineration and serious health impacts,
including mortality from various cancers. Research has demonstrated that
populations residing near incinerators are exposed to chemicals through
inhalation of contaminated air or by the consumption of contaminated agricultural
produce from the local area. Some of the emitted chemicals have been proven
to cause cancer in humans. It is a proven fact that iincinerators do not
make waste disappear; they reduce it to ash and to atmospheric emissions,
both of which are potentially hazardous.
“Earthlife Africa (Durban)
urges all other provincial governments and the national government to
commence to set in place monitoring systems for such technologies”, urges
Bryan Ashe, of Earthlife Africa Durban.
It is hoped, therefore,
that other industries and provinces will follow the example set by Compass
Waste Services and the KZN government in their consideration of autoclaving.
It should however be noted
that Compass Waste currently operates a medical waste incinerator in Ixopo
that is failing to meet several of the health and safety requirements
set down by government.
Contact Llewellyn Leonard
on: 033 3425662 or 0823535029 or llewellyn@groundwork.org.za
Attachment:
WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS
AND CONCERNS WITH INCINERATORS?
1. Air Pollution
All types of incinerators,
no matter how expensive, cause some air pollution. One incinerator can
release as many as 190 different chemicals into the air. Many of
these chemicals are very dangerous to our health. These chemicals
include dioxins and furans, which can cause cancer.
There are many ways to reduce
the amount of pollution coming out of incinerators, but there is no way
to stop all the pollution.
2. Incineration is dangerous
to human health
Studies have shown that
incinerator workers and people who live near to incinerator have more
health problems. Many highly toxic substances emitted from waste
incinerators (including dioxins, furans, cadmium, lead and mercury) are
known to disrupt the body’s hormonal (endocrine), immune and reproductive
systems as well as cause cancers. These chemicals can enter our
bodies when we breathe in polluted air, or when we eat food that has been
contaminated. For example: these chemicals can settle on grass,
which is eaten by cows. When we drink the cows’ milk or eat beef,
these chemicals enter our bodies.
3.Incinerators produce
dangerous ash
Fly ash, collected by the
incinerator’s air filter system, and bottom ash collected in the furnace
are more toxic then the original waste which went into the incinerator.
This is because new substances such as dioxins, furans and heavy metals
are created during the process of incinerating waste. Thus incinerator
ash must be safely disposed of on a hazardous landfill site.
4. Incineration does
not encourage waste reduction
Incinerators require a minimum
amount of waste to be delivered each day in order to remain operational.
This is a deterrent to waste minimisation.
5. Incinerators do not
make economic sense
Incinerators are extremely
expensive to install and run. Incinerators provide little employment opportunities
for the large capital investment needed. Much local public money
leaves the community and is paid into the hands of large private sector
and or multi-national companies to operate the incinerators. In contrast
with incineration, separating and recycling waste provide opportunities
for employment of local people, and money so spent remains in the community
6. Most incinerators
are situated in poor areas
In SA and many other countries
incinerators are located in low income communities or communities of colour.
This is because incinerators are polluting. This is called environmental
racism.
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