In 2009, the Health Protection Agency published an updated position statement64 and noted that modern, well-managed waste incinerators will only make a very small contribution to background levels of air pollution"; "provided they comply with modern regulatory requirements, such as the Waste Incineration Directive, they should contribute little to the concentrations of monitored pollutants in ambient air." The report also stated that a review of scientific evidence suggests air pollution from modern EfW plants make up less than one per cent of the country's particulate emissions, while industry and traffic accounts for more than 50 per cent.
Prior to the HPA report, a review of the evidence on the health effects of household waste treatment and disposal was commissioned by Defra in 2004. It considered incidences of disease around modern Energy from Waste plants and also four review papers looking at the health effects of Energy from Waste plants. The report considered cancer, respiratory disease and birth defects and found no evidence for a link between the incidence of these diseases and modern Energy from Waste plants.
______________________________________________________________
64 The HPA Position Statement was incorporated into a report entitled "the Impact on Health of Emissions to Air from Municipal Waste Incinerators" which was published in February 2010 and is available from http://www.hpa.org.uk/webc/HPAwebFile/HPAweb_C/1266228112244