Trash Incineration- Documentation on Adverse Health Effects and Economic Considerations
Resources Promoting Waste
Minimization and Opposing Incineration, PSR,
(http://www.psr.org/chapters/oregon/resources/waste-min-opp-incin.html)
Extensive, well-documented
reasons and options exist for communities to conserve their resources, minimize
their municipal and medical wastes, avoid or phase out incineration, and reduce
and minimize landfills. By embracing such options communities will
conserve resources, create jobs, reduce pollutants and global warming gases
emitted into the environment, reduce health impairment and health care costs,
and reduce direct and indirect financial threats to citizens, businesses,
governments, etc.
Wasted Energy - Debunking the Waste-to-Energy Scheme, Neil Seldman, E-Magazine, July/August
2008
http://www.ilsr.org/columns/2008/080008.html
Energy from Waste: Part 1 - The
Myths Debunked - Paul Connett Video 10:00 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB5iOtxlpCs
Incineration and Nanoparticles
- Paul Connett Video 2:43 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm9YzhOrB9Q
Cost of Emissions and Ash pollution from Incineration or Coal Facilities
Despite the latest spin, there is nothing better about burning
garbage
today, whether in
the U.S. or in Denmark (1). Attempts to peddle "waste
to energy" haven't gained wide acceptance around the world because
people are aware that incineration:
1. Remains a serious threat to public health
<http://www.cawdrec.com/incineration/CVH.pdf>.
Burning garbage is a
primary source of cancer-causing dioxins and other pollutants that enter
the food supply and concentrate up through the food chain.
2. Produces more carbon dioxide per unit of electricity than coal
power. Current atmospheric carbon loads cannot safely bear additional
emissions from incinerators and landfills
<http://no-burn.org/article.php?id=339>.
3. Is a massive waste of energy. Due to its low calorific value,
burning garbage to produce energy is highly inefficient (2).
Conversely, recycling recovers three to five times more energy than
incineration <http://www.springerlink.com/content/m423181w2hh036n4/>
produces.
4. Creates an economic burden for communities.
<http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9F11AS80.htm>
Billions of
taxpayer dollars are spent subsidizing the construction and operations
of incinerators. For a fraction of this cost
<http://www.emagazine.com/view/?4601>,
investments in recycle, reuse and
remanufacture, create significantly more business and employment
opportunity.
5. Represents the destruction of valuable resources and jobs. Zero
waste practices create over 10 times the number of jobs
<http://www.ilsr.org/recycling/>
than burning or burying the same waste.
Over ninety per cent of municipal waste can be recycled, re-used or
composted, to create thousands of good, long-term jobs.
As part of their marketing, incinerator lobby groups have even recruited
the same "expert" witnesses that once testified for the tobacco
industry
<http://www.no-burn.org/article.php?id=832>.
Fortunately, citizen
groups today are not easily deceived by
such masquerades and are
familiar with real solutions.
The next time the NY Times looks at gleaning information from industry
websites, I would encourage you to diligently question the source.
Footnotes:
1. According to Eurostat in 2007, Denmark produces the highest waste per
capita (over 1762 lbs. per person each year) in the EU -- clearly an
unsustainable level of waste generation. Additionally, over 80 % of what
is burned in Danish incinerators is recyclable/compostable.
2. State of the art incineration plants in Denmark achieve only 25%
energy efficiency with heat and power
Ananda Lee Tan
North American Program Coordinator
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives
1958 University Avenue,
Berkeley, Ca 94703
Phone: +1 510 883 9490 Ext 102
Email: ananda@no-burn.org
Website: www.no-burn.org
HAZARDS OF MEDICAL WASTE INCINERATION,
PSR, http://www.psr.org/chapters/oregon/assets/pdfs/hazards-of-medical-waste.pdf
_http://www.psr.org/chapters/oregon/assets/pdfs/hazards-of-medical-waste.pdf
_
(http://www.psr.org/chapters/oregon/assets/pdfs/hazards-of-medical-waste.pdf)
Addressing Toxic Chemical Influences on
Developmental Disabilities, PSR,
www.psr.org/chapters/boston/resources/in-harms-way.html
Learning, behavioral and developmental disabilities including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and autism prevent our children from reaching their full human potential. Seventeen percent of children in the United States have been diagnosed with one or more developmental disabilities. These disorders have widespread societal implications, from health and education costs to the repercussions of criminal behavior. Though trends are difficult to establish with certainty, there is a growing consensus that learning and behavioral disorders are increasing in frequency. Research demonstrates that pervasive toxic substances, such as mercury, lead, PCBs, dioxins, pesticides, solvents, and others, can contribute to neurobehavioral and cognitive disorders. Human exposure to neurotoxic substances is widespread
- FACT: According
to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17% of children under
18 in the U.S. have one or more developmental disabilities.
- FACT: Attention
deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is considered a common syndrome that
affects 3-6% of all school children. Ongoing studies suggest the incidence
may be much higher.
- FACT: Some
commonly used pesticides cause lifelong hyperactivity in rodents exposed
to a single small amount on a critical day of brain development.
- FACT: Fetal
mercury exposure may impair learning, memory, and attention in children as
they grow older.
- FACT: IQ
deficits in adolescent children are linked to fetal PCB exposure.
Biomass Incinerator Ash
Biomass Ash has varying levels of toxic metals depending on the fuel source and area the fuel was grown. The primary concerns are the levels of cadmium, mercury, and lead. Cadmium levels are often problematic, and mercury can also be high, averaging 1.9 parts per million in fly ash in one study. Much of the mercury in wood waste is in emissions, but can also be high in ash, where mercury is concentrated by as much as a factor of 40 compared to the fuel stock level. Ash with significant levels of toxic metals must be treated as toxic waste.
From waste to raw material—the route from biomass to wood
ash for
cadmium and other heavy metals; M. Narodoslawsky and I. Obernberger
Institute for Chemical Engineering, Graz University of Technology, Inffeldgasse 25, A-8010, Graz, Austria accepted 21 February 1996. Available online 20 March 1998.
Abstract
Energetic utilization of biomass is considered an environmentally safe way of providing energy, especially for process heat and district- heating purposes. The main advantage of energy from biomass is the CO2-neutrality of this energy-production process. However, this process produces a solid by-products, namely ash, that has to be considered. This ash contains nutrients like calcium, potassium and phosphorus that should be recycled to forest or agricultural soils, thus closing not only the carbon cycle but also the fluxes of mineral materials caused by these technologies. The problem is, however, that besides nutrients, the ash also contains heavy metals. Cadmium poses a special risk to the use of wood ash in agriculture. It pollutes a large fraction of the ash generated in a biomass combustion plant, namely the cyclone fly-ash and, to an even higher degree, the filter fly-ash or (where flue gas condensation is installed) the condensation sludge. A medium-term solution to the recycling of solid residues from biomass combustion is blending cyclone fly-ash and bottom ash and using the mixture in agriculture. Although a large part of nutrients might be recycled in this manner, care has to be taken of the relatively high amount of cadmium in this material. A new technology currently under development takes advantage of the different temperatures in a biomass combustion plant. This technology enables concentration of cadmium (and other volatile heavy metals) in a very small portion of the whole ash flux from a plant and the concentrations of environmentally relevant substances in the remainder of the ash is kept low. In this manner, wood ash from the process industry or district heating systems might be transformed from waste to raw material for agricultural use.
|
|
Farber Medical Solutions, LLC 1285 Wood Ave. Bridgeport, CT 06604 Attn.: Stewart Farber, MS
Public Health [203] 441-8433 - office [203] 522-2817 - mobile [203] 367-0791 - fax website: www.farber-medical.com email: farber@farber.info |
|
Greenfield Zoning Board of Appeals
14 Court Square
Greenfield, MA 01370
ALKALI
DEPOSITS FOUND IN BIOMASS POWER PLANTS
www.trmiles.com/alkali/alkali.htm#EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The handbook of biomass combustion and co-firing (Cd)
Letter to Ed (Dear Sirs,)
I request that this letter
and any information attached to it be added to the public record.
I am an environmental
radiation monitoring scientist [A.B.
Brown University in Chemistry, Master of Science in Public Health from
UMASS Amherst in Air Pollution Control]. Professionally, I have been involved
in conducting and assessing environmental radiation monitoring studies for over
20 years.
In the early 1990s, I
initiated a study by radiation scientists all over the US who documented the
levels of natural and man-made radioactivity in wood ash gathered from domestic
wood burning of both hardwoods and softwoods from the East Coast to Georgia,
South Carolina, Idaho, and California.
The study was initiated by a
Feature Article I authored to the Health Physics Society's Newsletter [Volume
XVIII, No. 4] titled "Preliminary Study of Cs-137 [Cesium-137]
Uptake by Trees and Its Implications for BRC, Waste Disposal, and Dosimetry]. The Health Physics Society is an
International Society of over 5,000 radiation safety scientists involved in
environmental, medical, and industrial radiation protection.
This initial study, noted above,
documents the presence of radioactive Cs-137, a man-made radioactive isotope,
in a small number of wood ash samples from around New England. My initial
Article called for actual measurements of Cs-137 in wood ash to be measured
since concentrations of man made Cs-137 were found to be quite variable. I
measured one sample of wood ash from trees harvested near Warren, VT distant
from any source of the release of radioactive Cs-137 from any industrial source
of radioactivity. This first measurement in Warren, VT was 10 times higher than
a wood ash sample from burning trees cut
down in Southern Vermont near the Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station.
This finding of higher Cs-137 in more Northern Vermont to levels 10 times lower
in Southern Vermont shows how variable the concentration of radioactive Cs-137
can be in trees, and how the resulting
content of Cs-137 in wood ash could vary accordingly.
In this initial Article, I
called for scientists all over the US to make Cs-137 measurements in wood ash
to document then current levels, and to send the data to me to compile. As background, Cs-137 was created and
dispersed worldwide in the environment
primarily from the open air testing of atomic bombs by the United States
and the former Soviet Union from the 1940s into the 1960s. When radioactive Uranium-235 or Plutonium-238
is fissioned in the explosion of an atomic or hydrogen bomb, the major amount of radioactivity from long half life fission products deposited in the environment
is from Cesium-137 and Strontium-90. Both isotopes have a half life of about 30
years. A half life of 30 years means
that both Cs-137 and Sr-90 decline by a factor of about 2 every 30 years.
Data in my initial study
clearly indicate that radioactive Cs-137 is present in wood ash samples
gathered from all over the US. The highest average concentrations [in declining
averages based on the samples analyzed] were measured in Maine, New Hampshire,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, and Massachusetts. Six samples analyzed in California were 50
times lower documenting how the higher measurements of Cs-137 were primarily
seen in the Eastern US.
The results of this research
were presented on October 21st, 1992 at the 5th Annual National Biofuels
Conference, which was organized by the United States Environmental
Protection Agency and other Federal and State environmental agencies and
organizations. I was an invited speaker
at this Biofuels Conference, and
participated in a panel discussing the significance of radioactivity in wood ash
to the use of biofuels. Radioactive Cs-137 levels in a sample as measured in
1991 will have declined by about 34% to the present.
A wood burning power plant
represents an industrial process which brings very large quantities of wood
[which contains radioactive Cs-137, Strontium-90, and a long list of natural
radioactive isotopes at varying concentrations depending on the wood supply]
and concentrates it in one location. This concentrated presence of
radioisotopes, as present in the biomass, is upon combustion released into the
stack gas emissions from the facility, and into the ash generated and disposed
of by the biomass power plant either as a waste product, or as a fertilizer as
a soil amendment.
The radioactivity present in
wood ash or in the stack gas releases from industrial wood burning power
generation using biomass has to my knowledge not been measured and assessed.
However, there is no disputing that both
man made and natural radioactivity will be present in both the stack releases
and in the ash. Both sources of release represent a pathway by which
radioactivity can reach people and the environment in a more concentrated
manner.
It is appropriate that any
applicant proposing to build a 50 MW[e] wood burning power plant make a basic
set of measurements to assess the radioactivity content of the wood which will
be used to feed the boilers, of the Cs-137 which might be released in the stack
gas emissions once the facility begins operation, and which will be present in
the thousands of tons of bottom and fly
ash which will be disposed of in various ways. Only in this manner, will it be
possible to characterize in a basic way what radiation exposure may result from
the operation of a biomass fueled power plant.
Respectfully yours,
Stewart Farber, MS Public Health
Farber Medical Solutions, LLC
1285 Wood Ave.
Bridgeport, CT 06604 [203] 441-8433
[office] [203] 522-2817 [cell] [203] 367-0791 [fax]
website: www.farber-medical.com email: farber@farber.info
Attachment:
Cesium-137 in Wood Ash -Results of Nationwide Survey, Stewart Farber, Consulting Scientist; Presented at the 5th Annual National Biofuels Conference, Newton, MA; October 21, 1992 38 pages including Attachments
Mercury in Biomass Feedstock and Combustion Residuals; Water,
Air, & Soil Pollution, Peter Thy1 
and Bryan M. Jenkins2
|
Department of Geology, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA |
|
Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616, USA |
Published online: 29 September 2009
Abstract An exploratory survey of the mercury content of some common California biomass feedstocks shows that the concentrations are well below EPA toxicity levels with representative feedstock concentrations of 20 ppb for rice straw, 28 ppb for wheat straw, and 32 ppb for whole-tree wood chips. The temporal variability for rice straw (17–20 ppb) is near the analytical uncertainty (∼2 ppb). Saline-irrigated feedstock does not contain greatly higher mercury contents (17–38 ppb) compared to normally irrigated feedstock. Water leaching has likewise no detectable effects on mercury mobility, despite an up to 30% increase in the Hg concentrations attributable to mass losses during leaching. Combustion at temperatures of at least 575°C results in complete volatilization of mercury leaving solid ash and slag residuals
with mercury contents at or near the lower limit of detection (5 ppb).
The mercury strongly concentrated in fly ash can reach concentrations up
to 40 times (<1,166 ppb) the corresponding fuel concentrations.
Trace Metal Concentrations in Ashes from Various Types of Biomass
Species Author: Ayhan
Dem
rba
a
Published in:
Energy Sources, Part A:
Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, Volume 25, Issue 7 July 2003 , pages 743 –
751 http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713849950&db=all
Abstract
In this study, toxic metal levels in selected samples of various biomass types—wood, wood bark, fruit shell, mushroom, and lichen—were determined. The samples were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometrically for their toxic metal elements: As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Hg. The maximum levels of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Hg were 4.118 mg/kg in beech trunk wood ash, 3.926 mg/kg in Cladonia rangiformis, 15.057 mg/kg in Lactarius piperatus, 92.488 mg/kg in Amanita muscaria, 40.832 mg/kg in beech trunk bark ash, and 0.718 mg/kg in Cladonia rangiformis, respectively, in all the samples. The problem of uptake and accumulation of these elements has environmental and toxicological aspects as well
|
Range in elemental
composition of industrial |
||
|
Element |
Wood Ash* |
Limestone |
|
Macroelements |
Concentration in % |
|
|
Calcium |
15 (2.5-33) |
31 |
|
Potassium |
2.6 (0.1-13) |
0.13 |
|
Aluminum |
1.6 (0.5-3.2) |
0.25 |
|
Magnesium |
1.0 (0.1-2.5) |
5.1 |
|
Iron |
0.84 (0.2-2.1) |
0.29 |
|
Phosphorus |
0.53 (0.1-1.4) |
0.06 |
|
Manganese |
0.41 (0-1.3) |
0.05 |
|
Sodium |
0.19 (0-0.54) |
0.07 |
|
Nitrogen |
0.15 (0.02-0.77) |
0.01 |
|
Microelements |
Concentration in mg/kg |
|
|
Arsenic |
6 (3-10) |
. |
|
Boron |
123 (14-290) |
. |
|
Cadmium * |
3 (0.2-26) |
0.7 |
|
Chromium |
57 (7-368) |
6.0 |
|
Copper |
70 (37-207) |
10 |
|
Lead * |
65 (16-137) |
55 |
|
Mercury * |
1.9 (0-5) |
. |
|
Molybdenum |
19 (0-123) |
. |
|
Nickel |
20 (0-63) |
20 |
|
Selenium |
0.9 (0-11) |
. |
|
Zinc |
233 (35-1250) |
113 |
|
Other Chemical Properties |
||
|
CaCO3 Equivalent |
43% (22-92%) |
100% |
|
pH |
10.4 (9-13.5) |
9.9 |
|
% Total solids |
75 (31-100) |
100 |
|
* Mean and (Range) taken from analysis of 37 ash samples |
||
· Mark Risse, Extension Engineering, 307 Hoke Smith Bldg., Athens 30602. 706-542-2154
· Glen Harris, Extension Agronomist, P.O. Box 1209, Tifton 31793. 912-386-3194
http://hubcap.clemson.edu/~blpprt/bestwoodash.html
MSW Incinerators
The 160 MSW incinerators operating in the U.S. produce about 8 million tons of ash each year containing, by rough estimate, some 18,000 tons of lead, plus lesser quantities of other potent toxins such as cadmium, arsenic, mercury and dioxin.[ Assuming the 8 million tons are 90% bottom ash containing 2000 ppm lead and 10% fly ash containing 4000 ppm lead] Ash containing 2000 ppm lead is contaminated at a level more than 5 times as high as the "level of concern" EPA recently set for lead in soil.
Hazardous waste can cost up to $300 per ton for burial at a legally-designated hazardous waste dump. Judi Enck of the New York Public Interest Research Group estimates that ash can be placed in an "ash monofill" for only $70 or $80 per ton. (note: costs outdated)
Burning garbage is a major source of toxic pollutants
<http://www.epa.gov/ncea/pdfs/dioxin/2k-update/>
. Burning garbage produces more climate pollution per unit of
electricity than coal power plants.
<http://www.epa.gov/cleanenergy/energy-and-you/affect/air-emissions.html>
. Burning garbage is a huge economic burden for communities
<http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9F11AS80.htm>
On the other hand
. Most waste that is buried and burned can be recycled or
composted
<http://www.sacbee.com/2009/12/20/2407629/viewpoints-dont-talk-trash-compost.html>,
generating more than 10 times the number of jobs than incinerators or
landfills.
. If all the waste buried or burned were to be recycled and
composted, hundreds of thousands of good, long-term jobs
<http://apolloalliance.org/new-apollo-program/recology-pursues-zero-waste-in-bay-area/>
could be created while reducing a massive toxic burden for some of the
poorest communities in this country.
RACHEL'S HAZARDOUS WASTE News #403, 1994, www.ejnet.org/rachel/rehw403.htm
RACHEL'S
HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #390 May 14, 1994 www.ejnet.org/rachel/rhwn390.htm
RACHEL'S
HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #391 ---May 26, 1994--- www.ejnet.org/rachel/rhwn391.htm
RACHEL'S
ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY #457 ---August 31, 1995--- www.ejnet.org/rachel/rehw457.htm
Rachel’s
News www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=4
Rachel’s
News : Index www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=4
#797 -- Toxic
Lead and Violence, August 05, 2004 www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=4
|
769 -- Prenatal Exposures and Disease, May
15, 2003 |
www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=4
|
#678 - ADHD and Children's
Environment, December 02, 1999 |
www.rachel.org/bulletin/index.cfm?St=4
Toxic
Metal Content of Coal Plant Ash www.flcv.com/tmcoal.html
