Wasting the Nation.indd - Groundwork

Chapter 3: The politics of wasteThese costs exclude environmental and health costs. Incinerators emit a bewilderingcocktail of known chemical compounds. Many more, particularly from thecombination of new waste and new generation incinerators, are not yet known andsome may never be known. The health impacts of only some specific compounds andheavy metals have been studied. The combined impact of the cocktail of compoundsand heavy metals is also not well studied, partly because of the limitations imposedby scientific procedure, but is almost certainly greater than the sum of impacts fromindividual pollutants.Particulates cause lung cancer and heart disease but also carry other pollutants into thecells of the body, predisposing the next generation to cancer. According to the WorldHealth Organisation, there is no safe limit for fine particulates as “health effects havebeen observed at surprisingly low concentrations with no threshold” [Thompsonand Anthony 2005: 10]. From the metals, mercury is known as a neurotoxin,affecting the brain and nervous system. It disorders childhood development leadingto learning disabilities and hyperactivity and to lowered intelligence. It also causesAlzheimer’s disease and may lead to dementia. Other metals, such as cadmium, areassociated with lung cancer and heart disease. Nitrogen oxide affects the lung, spleenand liver. Organic compounds are those based on carbon. They include such exoticfamilies of chemicals as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs); halogenatedcompounds (containing chlorine, fluorine and bromine); and dioxins and furans.They affect just about every bodily system: heart and blood, brain and nerves, lungs,hormones, glands, the immune system (with obvious implications for HIV/Aids),and on down to the genes. Dioxins alone cause a variety of cancers; suppress theimmune system; interfere with the reproductive system and hormones of bothmen and women leading to infertility and genital abnormalities and dysfunctions;impair foetal and childhood development leading to still births, birth defects and“cognitive deficits”; and have toxic effects on specific organs including the liver,spleen, thymus and skin and causing diabetes, wasting syndrome and chloracneamongst other things [Greenpeace 2001: 73].The impact of dioxins is most intense in the vicinity of incinerators but they havealso spread around the world on the wind. They do not affect only those directlyexposed to emissions. In common with other organic pollutants, they also bioaccumulateup the food chain. Further, they become concentrated in fatty tissueand in milk. Thus, dairy products from Europe and the UK contain very highWasting the Nation - groundWork - 59 -