Any move by Ireland to increase the use of incineration to deal with its waste problems should proceed with extreme caution in the light of incinerator-induced dioxin contamination occurring in France, according to a leading French environmentalist.
Commenting after French authorities ordered the closure of three municipal incinerators servicing the northern city of Lille, Mr Pierre-Emmanuel Neurohr said the problem of incinerator-derived dioxin was an insidious threat, particularly to children. Milk on nearby farms was found to exceed by a factor of three a limit above which it must not be sold.
Dioxin is a by-product of herbicide and bactericide manufacture and is one of the most toxic substances known. It is also produced by incineration of some chemicals.
The director of the Centre for Independent Information on Waste (CIIW) in Paris accused the French government of letting the problem fester similar to the way asbestos was allowed to cause "terrible difficulties".
High dioxin levels were found by the French agriculture ministry in milk from two farms in the wind path of the incinerators. Municipal authorities in Lille last week then ordered the closure within a month of incinerators at Halluin, Sequedin and Wasquehal. None had reached its commercial age limit. The move - the first time any domestic waste incinerator in France has been closed - was described by officials as "a measure of extreme precaution".
The levels of the poison found in two samples were minute: 14 and 15.9 picogrammes (pg) per gramme of fat (one picogramme is one million millionth of a gramme). Under a German standard used in France, milk nonetheless should contain less than .9 pg because of its toxic nature. The public must be alerted if it exceeds 3 pg and milk cannot be sold above 5 pg.
Mr Neurohr, when head of Greenpeace France's campaign against toxic pollution, exposed an official report suggesting dioxin during 1994-95 was occurring at a higher level than previously believed. It emerged last September that contamination was going beyond milk into dairy products. The CIIW is campaigning for the adoption of "allowable daily intake"(ADI) criteria: a focus of what people are eating, not individual products.
Applying ADI would mean that a 30 kg child should not take in more than 30 pg a day. "Figures suggest some French children are receiving three times too much dioxin per day; in milk, cheese and dairy products. This has huge implications for public health."
France disposes of 40 per cent of its domestic waste by incineration, while a policy decision to cease land-fill by 2002 is in his view "tailor-made for domestic incineration" and reflected in plans to create up to 150 additional incinerators. Dumps will be allowed where the energy content is taken out of waste first, i.e. by burning it or using it to generate electricity.
"The difficulties are clear when one sees that domestic waste has doubled in France in less than a generation from 10 million tonnes a year to more than 20 million tonnes."
The green movement in France considered the move to incineration "a catastrophe in the making". Mr Neurohr said the lessons should be applied elsewhere, including Ireland.
Incineration is considered by many waste specialists as the best option in the face of Europe's growing waste mountains.
Meanwhile, the director of the EU cohesion fund, Mr J.F. Verstrynge, confirmed on an Irish visit this week that the European Commission was prepared to finance a study of waste treatment options for Dublin.
