Archive: February 28, 2021

Air Emissions Environmental Standards CA

Air emission standards establish limits on the amount of contaminants that can be released into the atmosphere. These standards are expressed as a concentration in the exhaust gases leaving the stack and are capable of being achieved using generally available incineration technology and waste diversion practices. The following emission standards1 apply to existing, new or expanding solid waste incinerators operating in Nunavut and have been adopted from the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment (CCME) Canada-Wide Standards for Dioxins and Furans and Mercury Emissions, respectively.   Similar standards for the open burning of solid waste have not been established.

Table 1. Air Emission Standards for Solid Waste Incinerators

Parameter    Numeric Standard    Explanation

Dioxins and Furans
80 pg I-TEQ/cubic metre
Unit of measure is picograms of International Toxicity
Equivalents per cubic metre of air

Mercury
20 µg/Rcubic metre
Unit of measure is micrograms per Reference cubic metre (the volume of gas adjusted to 25oC and 101.3 kilopascals)

Opacity is the degree to which the exhaust gases reduce the transmission of light and obscure the view of any object in the background. It is expressed as a percentage representing the extent to which an object viewed through the gases is obscured. Although not an emission standard, opacity provides an indication of the general performance of the incinerator during normal operation2.  Opacity in the incinerator stack should not exceed 5%. While it is not anticipated that opacity levels would exceed 1% to 2% under normal operation, values greater than 5% indicate the incinerator is not performing properly and additional performance evaluation and adjustment is required.

Figure 6 – Examples of Smoke Opacity Ratings
The opacity ratings are estimates and are provided for illustrative purposes only
Centre and right photos courtesy of GNWT Department of Environment and Natural Resources

Incinerator Maximizing Combustion Efficiency

More smoke and other pollutants are released into the air during the ‘start-up’ and ‘cool down’ phases of the burn cycle

than during the ‘full burn phase’ when high temperatures are maintained.    Low temperature smoldering fires should be

avoided. Burn only dry feedstock and periodically add additional waste to the fire in order to maintain high burn

temperatures until all waste has been destroyed. If waste is to be open burned on the ground, the use of deep or steep-walled

‘pits’ should be avoided as this will prevent the necessary turbulent mixing of oxygen with the burnable gases.

Desired operating temperature should be achieved as quickly as possible when operating any burning or incineration device.  A

rapid ‘start-up’ can be achieved by first loosely loading dry paper, paperboard packing and untreated wood into the bottom

of the device. Dry, loosely loaded material will ignite more quickly and burn more evenly than a wet, tightly packed load.

Wet waste should only be added after  the fire is actively burning.  Overfilling the burn chamber will prevent the turbulent

mixing of burnable gases and oxygen, and should be avoided.

Modern batch feed incinerators are designed with primary and auxiliary burners to achieve and maintain the necessary high

burn temperatures. Additional waste should only be added to these incinerators once the ‘cool down’ phase has been

completed and it is safe to do so.

How many infectious medical waste?

Polaris Energy saving News: With the extensive use of the health care industry and the
development of medical disposable products, medical waste generation is growing rapidly.
The latest data show that there were 261, in the city to the community solid waste
pollution prevention information, only these 261 cities this year, medical waste volume
reached 547,500 tons.

Another one statistics show that at the end of 2012, the total number of medical
institutions of 950 297 beds 5.7248 million, according to an average of 1 kg per bed
medical waste each day, the total amount of medical waste generated in the country each
year to reach 200 million tons.

Faced with such a huge amount of waste generated, but many cities are composed of one or a
small number of waste disposal in a single way of handling medical waste incineration. Once
a case of waste incineration plants shut down, the government and the hospital in the
management of medical waste and daily operations, will face enormous challenges.

In fact, hospital waste generated a large part of municipal solid waste and similar low-
risk waste, about 75% to 90%, the remaining 10% to 25% are considered harmful, it may pose
a health risk, hospitals infectious waste is generally not more than 10% of the total
garbage. Reduce the amount of waste generated must be effective category management as the
premise, but now garbage classification level of the hospital, worrying.

Medical waste collection is key to the implementation of environmentally sound management
of medical wastes, but most Chinese hospitals do not pay attention to the sort processing
medical waste, and open place, no obvious signs, classification level is not high.

General hospital with normal household trash bins and yellow medical, hospital and clinic
staff told Post logo, the swab and other body fluids come into contact with the patient
garbage into yellow garbage bag. But the reporter visited some hospitals found that blood
tests and outpatient medical room yellow garbage bags of medical waste both regions, but
also paper, food packaging and other general household waste.

A survey conducted in a hospital in Wuhu, Anhui Province shows that at some medical
personnel classification concept is unclear, non-infectious waste, such as medical supplies
packaging, special medical waste mixed with yellow bag. Although such an approach did not
cause harm to the spread of disease, but it increases the cost of processing medical waste.

Survey on the status of management and disposal of medical waste in a primary hospital also
showed that the passing rate of garbage deposited only 45%. The survey also pointed out
that a lot of medical waste in the absence of sterilization, transported to the transfer
station processing, which may cause secondary pollution garbage occur during transport.

Many local medical waste disposal fee is calculated according to bed, the amount of waste
generated by hospitals not directly related to the processing fee paid. If the hospital
improve the management level, reducing the amount of waste generated, and the same number
of beds, garbage fees will not be reduced, so that is not conducive to encouraging
hospitals source waste separation and reduction.

Medical waste are complicated, including infectious wastes, pathological wastes, chemical
wastes and damaging waste, etc., relating to different textile materials, plastics, glass,
metal and human organizations, a single treatment is difficult to achieve for a variety of
medical garbage harmless treatment.

For different types of medical waste, we have a different processing method and apparatus
have been developed and used around the world. In order to reduce global pollution of
dioxins and furans, the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants and the World
Health Organization recommends the use of other alternative forms burned. Autoclaving is
probably the most widely used non-burning disinfection, in addition to chemical processing
technology, processing technology and microwave plasma processing technology.

China is now widely used is incineration, this approach tends to produce large amounts of
harmful gas mixture, including hydrochloric acid, dioxins and furans, as well as toxic
metals lead, cadmium and mercury.

A more complete medical waste incineration system shall include the feed system,
incinerator, combustion air system, start the ignition and burn-assisted system, flue gas
purification system, and the residue handling system, automatic monitoring system and
emergency system, which flue gas cleaning system is used to cut dioxin, mercury and other
highly toxic substances by incineration. However, research shows that some old equipment
medical incinerators, waste is a direct smoke exhaust emissions.

South China Institute of Environmental Sciences once a medical waste incineration plant in
Guangdong Province as the research object, through the collection and analysis incineration
plant and the surrounding soil and plant samples, PAHs understand incineration plant (PAHs)
distribution, sources and pollution levels. The results show that medical incinerators soil
surrounding a certain degree of contamination of PAHs detected in the soil 16 polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons, PAHs total amount ranging 11.83ng / g ~ 788.24ng / g, mean 236.681ng
/ g; in the study area downwind of the prevailing winds in the soil, total PAHs were
significantly higher than the prevailing winds soil content, and the total concentration of
PAHs in soil increases with distance showed a gradual decrease.

Hypocritical Smoke: The Scandal of Medical Waste Incineration

The middle-class Foxboro subdivision in North Salt Lake City, Utah, is, in many ways, an idyllic community for young families – new, modest, similarly sized homes on fairly compact lots, close by neighbors connected by sidewalks and streetlights, tons of playmates for all the kids. And Mormon communities have lots of kids, munchkins if you will. Foxboro has a “Polyanna” feel to it, not unlike a Mormon “Land of Oz.”

But a dark cloud hangs over Foxboro, sometimes literally. On a recent Friday evening in late summer, Foxboro was having a neighborhood 5K run/walk for the hundreds of families that live in the area. Suddenly, it looked like the Wicked Witch of the West had arrived: thick black smoke and flames billowed from a well-known industrial neighbor right next to the subdivision. Children became frightened. Some of them screamed that they couldn’t breathe and ran into other people’s houses to get away from the smoke. Parents panicked. Chaos descended on the race participants. A local resident took this video near the end of the episode.

Watching the video, one really expects to hear the Wicked Witch cackle, “I’ll get you and your little dog, too.”

Within the next half hour, I started getting e-mails from people from as far away as 40 miles complaining about the smoke and a distinct chemical smell, different from the occasional wind-whipped sulfur odor that sweeps in from the west, where the Great Salt Lake lies. In about 20 minutes, the smoke was gone, but the chemical smell lingered much longer. The next day, I got more e-mails from people who were experiencing a variety of respiratory symptoms and wondered what they had been exposed to.

The “Wicked Witch of the West” event was just the latest of many similar episodes involving Foxboro’s nonfictional villain – Stericycle, the medical waste incinerator. Stericycle’s North Salt Lake incinerator, however, is emblematic of a much larger issue: Via the front door, hospitals and clinics are purveyors of healing, well-being and saving lives. But out the back door, they often spread toxins and disease through a waste stream that is conveniently, but dangerously, burned into ashes by incinerators like Stericycle.

The story of North Salt Lake’s Stericycle facility is typical of what has happened in many communities throughout the country. The facility has been controversial for at least two decades. Even back when it was first permitted, there was concern about the health consequences of its emissions. The permit was approved by the Utah Air Quality Board by a one-vote margin. Legislation at the time prohibited such facilities from being within one mile of residences.

Around 2003, the county Planning and Zoning Commission received a proposal from the Foxboro developer to subdivide the land north and east of Stericycle into a large residential community. Part of the commission’s decision to grant Foxboro approval was based on discussions with the Division of Air Quality and the Division of Solid and Hazardous Waste. Both divisions were not forthright with information to the commission. They apparently claimed there were no “upset conditions.” Foxboro’s proposal was approved, and homes were built literally up against the wall of the incineration property, resulting in families living just feet from the incinerator smokestack, with some families literally sharing a backyard fence with Stericycle. This satellite photo showing the black soot on Stericycle’s roof and its close proximity to homes provokes the gnawing realization of what these families are breathing in 24/7.

Stericycle operates six incinerators in the US and is the largest medical waste treatment and disposal company in the country. Waste incinerators are serious public health hazards. Large studies have shown higher rates of adult and childhood cancers and birth defects among people who live around incinerators. Those results are consistent with the associations being causative. For example, a study of 14 million people followed for 13 years revealed an increase in cancer deaths of 11,000 people among those that lived within 7.5 kilometers of an incinerator.1,2 The cancer risk doubled for children living within 5 kilometers of an incinerator.3

This body of medical research is sufficiently robust to have precipitated a nationwide citizen movement to have these facilities closed. In fact, during the past 15 years, 98 percent of the 2,373 medical waste incinerators have closed; only 33 remain in operation. While thousands of communities have become cleaner as a result, in Utah things have gotten worse. Stericycle now accepts waste from eight surrounding states to be incinerated at its North Salt Lake plant. The city is serving as the sacrificial lamb for most of the western United States. In addition to medical waste, including human fluids and tissue, Stericycle is allowed to incinerate animal carcasses (more about that below).

As with most incinerators, the health consequences are not so much the high-volume pollutants, like particulate matter, ozone, NOx or SO2, but the amount of the hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) that are designated as such by the EPA because of their high level of toxicity, even at minute concentrations. HAPs include benzene, dioxins, furans, heavy metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and even radioactive elements. Stericycle officially emits a similar volume of HAPs as a full-scale oil refinery or coal-fired power plant. But the emissions are released from a much shorter stack; therefore local deposition is greater. Stericycle’s permit allows it to emit 130 pounds of lead per year, 912 pounds of chlorine, 18 pounds of cadmium and 60 pounds of mercury. The total amount of HAPs allowed in its permit is 9.51 tons per year.

Most toxic heavy metals are not combustible, do not degrade, cannot be destroyed, accumulate in the local environment after leaving Stericycle’s smokestack, and accumulate in the bodies of everyone for miles around. They have been implicated in a range of emotional and behavioral problems in children – including autism, dyslexia, ADHD, learning difficulties and delinquency – and in adults – dementia, depression and Parkinson’s disease. Increased rates of autism and learning disabilities have been found around sites that release mercury into the environment, like coal power plants and incinerators.4 Utah has the highest rates of autism in the nation, double the national average. That fact alone should compel our state leaders to deal with every possible contributor to this public health disaster. Sources of heavy metal pollution should be first on that list.

A study by The National Research Council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, concluded that it was not only the health of workers and local populations that are affected by incinerators. It stated that, “Persistent air pollutants, such as dioxins, furans and mercury can be dispersed over large regions – well beyond local areas and even the countries from which the sources emanate,”5 meaning that Stericycle is far from an issue affecting its immediate neighbors only.

Incinerators do not eliminate hazardous substances; they concentrate them, redistribute them, and even create new ones, such as dioxins. In addition to dioxins, they emit chlorine, mercury, arsenic, lead, cadmium, ammonia and benzene – spreading miles from the smokestack, eventually inhaled by local residents or swallowed when they eat vegetables from their gardens, or their children play on a backyard swing set. Dioxins are likely the most toxic manmade substance known after plutonium. Many of these chemicals are both toxic and bio-accumulative, building up over time in the body insidiously with the risk of chronic effects from even very low, continuous exposure.

For multiple physiologic and biologic reasons, children and fetuses are at significantly increased risks from many of these incinerator emissions. One example is illustrative of the point. Many of these HAPs concentrate in human fetuses or in human breast milk. A nursing infant may consume 10 to 50 times as much dioxin as the average adult and is much more vulnerable to its toxicity. Six months of breast feeding will transfer 20% of a mother’s lifetime accumulation of organochlorines (like dioxins) to her nursing child.6 No risk assessment about Stericycle has paid any attention to whether or not their dioxin emissions are causing human breast milk of Utah’s mothers to be unsafe.

The combined impact of extensive geographic spread of incinerator emissions and bioaccumulation is starkly revealed by what has been discovered in the Inuit Native Americans in the polar region of Northern Canada. Inuit mothers here have twice the level of dioxins in their breast milk as Canadians living in the South. There is no source of dioxin within 300 miles. A study tracking emissions from 44,000 sources of dioxin in North America, combining data on toxic releases and meteorological records revealed the leading contributors were three municipal incinerators in the USA.7,8

Medical waste incinerators are even more hazardous than other incinerators for two reasons. Radioactive elements like potassium-40, uranium, thorium, cesium and strontium are ubiquitous in low concentration in human bodies and animal carcasses, and when tons of carcasses and body parts are incinerated, all those radioactive elements are concentrated and released up the smokestack.

Just as disturbing is the fact that prions, the highly infective mutated proteins that cause Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathies (TSEs), i.e. Mad Cow disease in cattle, scrapie in sheep, chronic wasting disease in deer and elk and Creutzfeld-Jacob Disease (CJD) in humans – all uniformly fatal – are almost undoubtedly present in Stericyle’s waste stream. Prions are so infective that pathologists do not want to touch tissue from a suspected victim, be it human or animal. So the diagnosis is usually never made. And most of the time, there is no way that Stericycle would even know whether prions are in the waste stream headed for the smokestack then distributed throughout North Salt Lake. Prions are frighteningly resistant to destruction, including incineration. I’ll have a more detailed depiction of the issue of prions in a subsequent essay. A detailed report on the health consequences of waste incinerators is available online.

Any incinerator would represent a serious risk to public health in our community. As dramatic and intuitively dangerous as the video seems, it better serves a larger point. Any incinerator has start-ups and shutdowns and other “events” that result in the bypass of pollution-control equipment on a regular basis. In fact “pollution events” this severe may not represent a permit violation – which shows how out of control this situation has become.

Studies at other incinerators show that “bypass events” may be occurring 10 percent of the time. Dioxins produced during start-ups can be twice the annual dioxin emissions under steady state conditions. Spot monitoring, as is done by the Utah Division of Air Quality (DAQ), has been shown to be grossly inadequate and likely underestimates the actual dioxin and heavy metal emissions by 30-50 times. The best managed incinerator would still be a community health hazard.

This facility is anything but “best managed.” In layman’s terms, the DAQ has caught Stericycle falsifying its records, intentionally loading the incinerator with material that does not represent its normal feedstock in order to pass their emissions test – in other words cheating. And the DAQ has found Stericycle emitting hundreds of times more dioxins and furans than Stericycle’s permit allows (public health protection would demand that the company not be allowed to emit any). We were told by the DAQ that this facility is now under criminal investigation at the state and federal level.

An internal DAQ email quotes a subcontractor for Stericycle stating that the company is pressuring its manager to “push the limits of the plant.” Further, the comment is made that the manager recently received a huge raise and promotion and “that as a result, they are now demanding more and more of him.” The manager is complaining that “he is under a lot of pressure from his managers to feed more and more waste through the plant and that the plant can’t handle what they want it to do.” “Bypass events” like the one captured on video are all too predictable from a corporation that prioritizes profit over safety.

Hospitals and clinics are not innocent bystanders. As health care centers, it is ironic and indefensible for them to dispose of their waste in a manner that harms community health. The International Red Cross states, “Hospitals are responsible for the waste they produce. They must ensure that the handling, treatment and disposal of that waste will not have harmful consequences for public health or the environment.”

Neither is the EPA an innocent bystander. An appeal of Stericycle’s permit has been sitting on its desk since 2009. As a result of multiple recent community protests of Stericycle’s operations, the EPA has finally consented to address the appeal by mid-October 2013.

Incineration of medical waste is a business that simply shouldn’t exist. No useful product is produced; no needed service is performed. There are safer technologies, like steam autoclaving and burial. Several countries have committed to eliminating incineration as a destination for medical waste. The United States is not one of them. In fact the list of “enlightened” countries is not what you might expect – Ireland, Slovenia, Portugal and the Philippines.

Although many American communities are breathing cleaner air because of widespread closure of incinerators, North Salt Lake, and Foxboro residents in particular, are needlessly “taking a hit” for the team. Normally Mormon suburbs are bastions of political and cultural conservatism, reservoirs of quiet capitulation and obedience to authority. But in Foxboro, with town hall meetings, protest marches and rallies in the Capitol in front of the governor’s office, they are mounting an unwillingness to remain victims of Stericycle’s profiteering. They even convinced Erin Brockovich to come to Foxboro and lend her fame and legal muscle to the battle.

Foxboro has learned the wisdom of 19th century abolitionist Frederick Douglass. “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.” The residents of Foxboro are no longer quietly submitting to the mistake that is Stericycle, and they are exposing the nationwide scandal that is medical waste incineration.

Information from: http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/19069-hypocritical-smoke-the-scandal-of-medical-waste-incineration

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