Exploring social and infrastructural factors affecting open burning of municipal solid waste (MSW) in Indian cities: A comparative case study of three neighborhoods of Delhi.

Open municipal solid waste (MSW)-burning is a major source of particulate matter emissions in developing world cities. Despite a legal ban, MSW-burning is observed ubiquitously in Indian cities with little being known about the factors shaping it. This study seeks to uncover social and infrastructural factors that affect MSW-burning at the neighborhood level. We couple physical assessments of the infrastructure provision and the MSW-burning incidences in three different neighborhoods of varying socio-economic status in Delhi, with an accompanying study of the social actors (interviews of waste handlers and households) to explore the extent to which, and potential reasons why, MSW-burning occurs. The observed differences in MSW-burning incidences range from 130 km-2 day-1 in low-income to 30 km-2 day-1 in the high-income areas. However, two high-income areas neighborhoods with functional infrastructure service also showed statistical differences in MSW-burning incidences. Our interviews revealed that, while the waste handlers were aware of the health risks associated with MSW-burning, it was not a high priority in the context of the other difficulties they faced. The awareness of the legal ban on MSW-burning was low among both waste handlers and households. In addition to providing infrastructure for waste pickup, informal restrictions from residents and neighborhood associations can play a significant role in restricting MSW-burning at the neighborhood scale. A more efficient management of MSW requires a combined effort that involves interplay of both social and infrastructural systems.

Waste incineration industry and development policies in China.

The growing pollution from municipal solid waste due to economic growth and urbanization has brought great challenge to China. The main method of waste disposal has gradually changed from landfill to incineration, because of the enormous land occupation by landfills. The paper presents the results of a study of the development status of the upstream and downstream of the waste incineration industry chain in China, reviews the government policies for the waste incineration power industry, and provides a forecast of the development trend of the waste incineration industry.

[Ignored homicides]. / Homicides ignorés.

Forensic medicine is a fundamental science for a good evolution of the law and a serious protection of citizens. This science is also inextricably linked to public health. As basic discipline, we consider useful to revisit homicides which escape the investigators'sagacity and especially to know the reasons of this missing. Forensic high quality depends on respect of the crime scene, through specialized training and above all the recognition of this crucial discipline in our contemporary society.

[Thermovalorization: new technologies, impacts and mitigation strategies]. / Termovalorizzatori: analisi e confronto tra nuove tecnologie, impatti e strategie di mitigazione.

In recent decades the quantity (in weight and volume) of solid waste is grown so rapidly to become a real problem especially in densely urbanized areas. The disposal of Municipal Solid Waste by incineration with energy recovery (WtE) is recognized as the most suitable system to process non-recyclable waste. However in several countries there are still concerns from experts and local communities about the environmental impact of incinerators. Epidemiological studies, developed since the 80s, are still the subject of controversial discussion because the results of research often refer to old incinerators--built a few decades ago--and therefore more impactful. In fact inadequate levels of gas cleaning and combustion process control in these facilities tended to risk the health of plant workers and local environment. This situation furthermore contributes to increase public risk perception and the spread of the NIMBY (not in my backyard) syndrome while siting this unwanted but necessary facilities. Actually, new strategies as advances in emission control designs and very stringent new governmental regulations, have resulted in large reductions in the amount of emissions. So the first aim of this work has been to understand if these high perception of risk have a reason to exist also in modern and new municipal waste incinerators. The second aim is to discover if the law, the new technologies and the mitigation strategies can really set a limit on the negative impacts on human health and on environment and if is it possible to improve or increase these strategies. Work has been divided into two parts. The first part focuses on analysis of waste environmental impact regulations, of plant operation systems and of epidemiological studies results. The second part involves the examination of the actual use of regulatory instruments, the most advanced technologies and the strategies for mitigation in the most effective new concept incinerators plants. For this verification has been analyzed in detail some different incineration plants recently created or rehabilitated in the last decade. The case-studies showed that the preliminary evaluation tools and the constant control of the waste incinerator are very effective. Moreover the comparison between the maximum emission limits, the BAT and the analysis of the actual emission of the cases study has shown the effectiveness of the depuration systems currently used. The emissions are in fact much lower than these limits. By the comparison we also identified the most efficient strategies and the best policies to inform and to involve people. Success in siting an unwanted but needed facility requires that authorities fully involve the public with openness and integrity in all aspects of the planning process. Starting from these result and in order to exploit what is already effective, some proposals where outlined and aim to be the basis for further approaches to design waste disposal plants.

[Moniter Project: a model of HIA for Incinerators]. / Progetto Moniter: un modello di VIS per gli impianti di incenerimento.

The Emilia-Romagna regional government decided to develop a monitoring and surveillance system, known as MonITER (Incineration Monitoring on the Emilia-Romagna Territory), in 8 areas characterized by the presence of municipal waste incinerating plants.The project was divided into 7 lines, among these the number 6 developed a procedure of Health Impact Assessments (HIA) to support the planning of new facilities for incineration or combustion. Line number 6 is divided into 3 actions n action 1 aimed to developing and validating a participative HIA methodology, as well tools for the impact assessment and recommendations for implementing HIA on future plants; n action 2 analysed connected issues on communication; n action 3 was focused to developing a methodology for integrating HIA models into existing tools for mandatory impact assessment.Tailoring the HIA model development to the waste management context has highlighted the fundamental differences of the HIA approach with the other mandatory assessment tools, being theoretically founded on the principles of public involvement, equity, sustainable development and ethical use of evidence.

Efficiency of energy recovery from waste incineration, in the light of the new Waste Framework Directive.

This paper deals with a key issue related to municipal waste incineration, which is the efficiency of energy recovery. A strong driver for improving the energy performances of waste-to-energy plants is the recent Waste Framework Directive (Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 November 2008 on waste and repealing certain Directives), which allows high efficiency installations to benefit from a status of "recovery" rather than "disposal". The change in designation means a step up in the waste hierarchy, where the lowest level of priority is now restricted to landfilling and low efficiency wastes incineration. The so-called "R1 formula" reported in the Directive, which counts for both production of power and heat, is critically analyzed and correlated to the more scientific-based approach of exergy efficiency. The results obtained for waste-to-energy plants currently operating in Europe reveal some significant differences in their performance, mainly related to the average size and to the availability of a heat market (district heating).

Guia para investimentos ambientais: Brasil-Itália = Guida per gli investimenti ambientali: Italia-Brasile / Guide for environmental investments: Brazil-Italy

Projeto Desenvolvimento Sustentável Bilateral.(AU)

Leaching behavior of heavy metals from municipal solid wastes incineration (MSWI) fly ash used in concrete.

The characteristics of municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) fly ash, surface leaching toxicity and successive leaching concentration of heavy metals from MSWI fly ash-cement hardened pastes were studied. And, the relationships between leaching concentrations of heavy metals and leaching time were also discussed. Experimental results showed that immobilization effect of cement on MSWI fly ash is good. Even if MSWI fly ash-cement hardened pastes were damaged, the leaching toxicity is still in a safety range. In early leaching stage, the surface leaching rate is relatively a little high, up to 10(-5)-10(-4)cmd(-1) order of magnitude, in the later time of leaching, its rate rapidly declined, down to 10(-7). Most of leached heavy metals are produced at early ages. The leaching concentration of heavy metals and leaching time has strong positive relationships. In factual utilizing circumstances, heavy metals' leaching from MSWI fly ash-cement hardened pastes is a very slow and gradually diluting process. The leaching toxicity of heavy metals is far lower than that of the National Standard of China, and minimum harmful matters can be contained and released in the environment. Reusing of MSWI fly ash as partial replacement for cement in concrete mixes is potentially feasible.

Practices in dioxin emission reduction by special regulatory enforcement and utilizing advanced control technologies for incinerators in Korea.

This study strives to estimate the emission of dioxin and furthermore attempts to find the best technological control methods available for waste incinerators by investigating the emission status thereof. In order to incorporate the Stockholm Convention, a particular stringent law was promulgated in Korea and in recent years incinerators were forced to utilize better technological control. After the enforcement of special dioxin emission regulation in 2003, the average concentration of dioxin emitted from municipal and industrial waste incinerators decreased from 15.25 and 12.86 ng TEQ Nm(-3) to 5.53 and 4.96 ng TEQ Nm(-3) in 2001 and 2004, respectively. Based on test results at commercial plants, several best arranged sets of air pollution control devices (APCDs) were suggested in order to provide guidelines to help operators. These sets included combinations of spray dry absorbers, bag type filters, wet scrubbers, selective catalytic reductions and electrostatic precipitators. Different suggestions and real installations of APCD arrangement were investigated during the years around the regulation in effective. The results were presented depending on the capacity of the incinerators and different waste streams to observe the efforts to reduce dioxin emission by operators of incineration plants. The annual amount of dioxin emission from the incinerators is expected to be 212.5 g-TEQ in 2011 and 234.3g-TEQ in 2015, respectively, compared to 891.6g-TEQ recorded in 2001. The enforcement of new regulation and the installation of better APCDs showed the significant effect on such reduction. This reduction in dioxin emission from incinerators confirmed the nation's commitment to the regulatory requirement set by the Stockholm Convention.

[Sugar cane burning in Brazil: respiratory health effects]. / Queimadas de cana-de-açúcar no Brasil: efeitos à saúde respiratória.

The article aimed to update scientific literature information about respiratory health effects caused by sugarcane burning, considering the expansion of sugarcane plantations in Brazil and in the state of São Paulo. Articles published between 1996 and 2006, which deal with the health effects of sugarcane burning and/or air pollutants originating from this burning, were discussed. These studies suggest that part of the population--especially the elderly, children and asthmatics--suffers health effects of sugarcane burning. As a result, these people require health care, thus affecting health services and their families.

Incineration of municipal and assimilated wastes in France: assessment of latest energy and material recovery performances.

Incineration has an important place in waste management in France. In 2003, around 130 incineration plants have treated 12.6 Mt of non-dangerous waste, mainly composed of household waste (10.8 Mt), non-dangerous waste from industry, business, services (1.0 Mt), sewage sludge (0.2 Mt) or clinical waste (0.1 Mt). The incineration of these wastes generated 3.0 Mt of bottom ash of which 2.3 Mt were used for roads construction and 0.2 Mt of ferrous and non-ferrous metal were recycled. It also produced 2,900,000 MWh of electricity, of which 2,200,000 MWh were sold to Electricité de France (EDF) and 9,100,000 MWh of heat, of which 7,200,000 MWh were sold to private or public users. These French incinerators of non-hazardous waste are currently being thoroughly modernized, thus making possible the consolidation and the enhancement of their environmental and energy performance. This process is related to the implementation of the European Directive 2000/76/CE whose expiration date is 28 December 2005. Upon request of ADEME, the engineering company GIRUS has realised the first technical and economical evaluation of works necessary to bring incinerators into compliance. The financial estimations, carried out in 30 June 2003, show that the investments to be devoted could reach 750 million euros. This assessment shed new light on the situation of non-hazardous waste incinerators, including an identification and a rank ordering for each incinerator of the most frequent and the most complex non-conformities to be solved in term of cost and delay. At last, this assessment gives the solutions for each non-compliance.

Health risk assessment for planned waste incinerators: getting the right science and the science right.

Health risk assessment is widely advocated in the United Kingdom as the most comprehensive means of assessing the health risks posed by the emissions of a planned waste incinerator. Its main advantage over other methods of assessment, such as air quality impact assessment, is its ability to address explicitly the direct (inhalation) and indirect (ingestion and dermal contact) health risks posed by different chemicals, including those that are not thought to have a threshold below which no adverse effect will take place. This article examines the level and quality of the emissions assessments included in 61 waste incinerator environmental statements (ESs); in particular, it focuses on the quality of the exposure assessment and risk characterization stages of the health risk assessment process. The article concludes that the ES has not always provided interested stakeholders with the best available information upon which to determine the tolerability of the health risks posed by waste incinerator emissions Some recommendations are made as to how this problem might be addressed in future environmental impact assessment (EIA) processes.

Certificado de de función e incineración de cadáveres / Death certificate and cremation

Objetivo: Se pretende investigar si existe algún soporte jurídico y/o científico que determine la necesidad de hacer constar en el certificado de defunción (CD) la ausencia de contraindicaciones para la incineración de cadáveres.Método: El material utilizado fue la revisión de la normativa legal vigente y las respuestas obtenidas de instituciones públicas.Resultados: No existen conocimientos técnicos ni soporte jurídico que obligue al médico a hacer constar en el CD la ausencia de contraindicaciones para la incineración.Conclusiones: Debería desarrollarse la normativa legal sobre la incineración de cadáveres (AU)

Approval and promulgation of Hospital/Medical/Infectious Waste Incinerators: State Plan for designated facilities and pollutants: Idaho. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Direct final rule.

EPA is approving the State of Idaho's section 111(d) State Plan for controlling emissions from existing Hospital/Medical/Infectious Waste Incinerators (HMIWI). The plan was submitted on December 16, 1999, to fulfill the requirements of sections 111(d) and 129 of the Clean Air Act. The State Plan adopts and implements the Emissions Guidelines applicable to existing HMIWIs, and establishes emission limits and controls for sources constructed on or before June 20, 1996. EPA has determined that Idaho's State Plan meets CAA requirements and hereby approves this State Plan, thus making it federally enforceable.

Methodological approach for an integrated environmental monitoring system relative to heavy metals from an incineration plant.

The use of an Integrated Environmental Monitoring System is an innovative and very important approach for the determination of environmental impacts due to a contamination source. In the present work, the methodological approach is described and applied to the case study of a MSW incineration plant. Heavy metals were chosen as Environmental Indicators. Gaseous emissions were measured and correlated to wet and dry depositions, soil and vegetation samples. Results show a good correlation between stack emissions and atmospheric depositions; less with soil and vegetation, but these results are important in order to design a standard procedure for an Integrated Monitoring System.