Family doctors in Drogheda have expressed their concerns about the proposal to build the State's first municipal waste incinerator at Carranstown, Co Meath.
In a letter to a local newspaper, 18 GPs say it is important for the community to realise that a decision by An Bord Pleanála had been taken without considering possible health issues related to incineration. They also cited the short distance from the "increasingly populous" areas of Drogheda and east Meath.
Earlier this year An Bord Pleanála granted Indaver Ireland permission for the incinerator after it rejected the recommendation of its own inspector - who chaired an oral hearing into the application - that permission be refused.
The €85 million project will, if granted a licence by the Environmental Protection Agency, incinerate municipal waste from the north eastern counties of Louth, Meath, Cavan and Monaghan.
The doctors said incineration produces a cocktail of varied chemicals including dioxins "which are a group of extremely toxic substances linked to a variety of human diseases, including cancer".
They are also concerned about other chemicals produced by the incineration of mixed waste "that are also toxic to humans".
"Research studies have shown a series of clusters of illnesses near to incinerators. However, these results have varied. This may well reflect a different mix of waste in each incinerator and therefore a different chemical emission from each," they write.
The doctors also warn that keeping emissions at low levels will not prevent small amounts of toxic chemicals escaping into the environment where "they may persist in the land, in the food chain and indeed in our bodies where toxic effects may potentially occur after many years of low-level exposure. This may be particularly critical in babies and the unborn that may be more vulnerable to these effects," they add.
They question the monitoring and safety measures in place, saying that new evidence about the toxic effects of chemicals is constantly being updated and "today's 'safe' level may be tomorrow's 'unsafe' one".
The recently published Health Research Board's report said there was inconclusive evidence of a link between cancer and proximity to an incinerator, and more research was needed. The doctors say the community in Drogheda already has a landfill on its doorstep and "we feel it is inappropriate to ask us to become part of the research required to determine exactly how dangerous incinerators might be!"
The doctors' statement was welcomed by the anti-incineration movement, whose spokesman, Mr Pat O'Brien, said: "We have not gone away, and our legal challenge to the planning decision is under way. We have begun judicial review proceedings in the High Court."