Scottish Highlands Battle To Stay Beautiful
Expert Arguments Against Waste Incinerator Plant for Invergordon
Aug 6, 2009
That’s the price of a waste incinerator planned for Invergordon, in Ross-shire. On August 18, 2009, the Highland Council will debate a planning application from Combined Power and Heat (Highlands) to build the facility.
A campaign against the plan is gathering force and there has been a series of protests and a petition is being circulated ahead of the hearing.
Effects on Health From Incinerators
Glenn Jones, managing director of CPH Highlands, said in May 2009: ‘We carried out extensive air modelling and health risk assessments as part of our recent planning application to Highland Council. These indicate that emissions from our proposed plant pose absolutely no risk to human health.’
However, pressure group Invergordon Incinerator No To Waste has now gathered a large volume of research and reports into potentially harmful effects of incinerators on public health.
Much of the group's concern centres on the possibility of nano particles being released into the atmosphere in the combustion process and which they say the human body is not designed to deal with.
Fine Particulates and Toxic Metals
A report to the British Society for Ecological Medicine (June 2008), moderated by Dr Jeremy Thompson and Dr Honor Anthony, concludes that the hazards of incineration 'are greater than previously realised'.
It states: ‘Incinerator emissions are a major source of fine particulates, of toxic metals and of more than 200 organic chemicals, including known carcinogens, mutagens, and hormone disrupters.’
‘Large studies have shown higher rates of adult and childhood cancer and also birth defects around municipal waste incinerators. The results are consistent with the associations being causal.’
The report also claimed: ‘Many of the pollutants bio-accumulate, enter the food chain and can cause chronic illnesses over time and over a much wider geographical area.’
American Reaction to Incinerators
Local resident Deirdre Bews, who is on the frontline of the campaign said: ‘In America, there has been such concern at the health risks associated with incinerators that by the early part of this century they had shot down 2,000 of the type proposed in Invergordon.’
The Problem of Toxic Materials
The campaigners also point to a substantial, albeit dated, Greenpeace report, Incineration and Human Health by Michelle Allsop, Pat Costner, and Paul Johnston (2001) which claims: ‘Incinerators do not solve the problems of toxic materials present in wastes. In fact they simply convert these toxic materials to other forms, some of which may be more toxic than the original materials.'
‘These newly-created chemicals can then re-enter the environment as contaminants in stack gases, residual ashes and other residues.
‘A multitudinous array of chemicals is released, including innumerable chemicals that currently remain unidentified.’
The Ecological Medicine report explains: ‘Many of these chemicals are both toxic and bio-accumulative, building up over time in the body in an insidious fashion with the risk of chronic effects at much lower exposures.’
Alternative Solutions For Waste
Viable alternatives have been proposed, including recycling, mechanical, biological treatment and plasma gasification. The Ecological Medicine insists: ‘Incineration is the least preferred option for getting rid of waste. Far safer alternative methods are available. A combination of these would be safer, would produce more energy, and would be cheaper than incineration in the long run.’
Invergordon Protests
The volume of papers and reports that raise concerns about incineration would themselves fill up a fair chunk of landfill space but on the other side of the argument there is a group of town councillors who look set to back the company’s application.
In July 2009 Glenn Jones hit back, saying the incinerator proposal was no different from similar plants already operating in the UK and all over the world.
He urged people to listen to experts, such as the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, who he said is 'happy with our proposal'.
By August 18, the environmentalists, the politicians and the executives will have had their say and minds will be made up.
But in the modest surroundings of the Invergordon Social Club, the battle against the incinerator will be fought by those who will have to live with the decision - the fishermen, farmers and families of the Highlands.
 |
