I see I have your attention.
Before I get onto testicles, let me just say:
In section 1, we’ll talk balls. Section 2 will look at why exactly our precious genetic inheritance is being threatened – for no good reason at all, it turns out, except meeting government targets and enriching one bloated company. Section 3 has a list of resources from Greenpeace for anyone who wants to act…
Before I get onto testicles, let me just say:
In section 1, we’ll talk balls. Section 2 will look at why exactly our precious genetic inheritance is being threatened – for no good reason at all, it turns out, except meeting government targets and enriching one bloated company. Section 3 has a list of resources from Greenpeace for anyone who wants to act…
(Adapted from 
http://www.pmac.net/hormone_science_part3.html: and www.greenpeace.org.uk)
1. So! Testicles:
You’ll be interested to learn that the fumes emitted by incinerators – like Onyx’s incinerator at Bernard Road –
http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&X=437000.999999427&Y=388000.930902856&width=700&height=400&gride=436816.999999427&gridn=387997.930902856&srec=0&coordsys=gb&db=GB&addr1=&addr2=&addr3=&pc=&advanced=&local=&localinfosel=&kw=&inmap=&table=&ovtype=&zm=0&scale=10000&out.x=9&out.y=13
… by burning plastics and other rubbish can have a negative impact on the ball game. Not just the ball game of the man burning the plastic bottles by the roadside, or his little boy lingering nearby, but on those passing by or living near places where plastic is being burned, who are breathing in the fumes or other residues. Yes, YOUR ball game.
They don’t know how much you have to breathe in over what period of time, but a correlation has been established. Recent research indicates that burning household garbage at low temperatures can have a severe impact on the sexual development of children.
The Lancet, a respected British medical journal, contained an article in May 2001 stating that teenage boys leaving near incinerators had smaller testicles and females had smaller breasts than those living in rural areas. Danish researchers led by Dr Neils Skakkebaek call this Testicular Dysgenisis Syndrome (TDS).
“TDS may be caused by genetic or environmental factors or a combination of both,” states Dr Skakkebaek. “As the rise in incidence of the various symptoms of TDS has occurred rapidly over few generations, we must consider that adverse environmental factors such as hormone disrupters could be to blame.”
2. What the hell is going on?
The UK Government, some local authorities and incinerator operators have hoodwinked the public into believing that waste incineration is somehow a green option for waste management.
Words such as "renewable", "recycling" and "sustainable" are being used by the authorities and the industry to describe the burning of municipal waste.
• Incinerators have been renamed and transformed into benign sounding "Energy from Waste" plants.
• the toxic ash they produce is "recycled" into road aggregate.
• burning discarded products and packaging is no longer a method of waste disposal but, according to the Government, a renewable energy source.
No matter what the Government elects to call them, incinerators are nothing more than huge, indoor fires in which mixed rubbish is burned.
The heat is used to make steam and generate electricity, but essentially the process is no different from the medieval practice of building a bonfire from rubbish and setting it alight. This process, whether it is called incineration or "energy recovery", is not possible without releasing hazardous substances to the air, water and soil.
This attempt to spin-doctor away the fundamental problems of incineration threatens not only human health and the environment by ignoring the serious pollution generated by incinerators, but also undermines targets and goals for reducing waste and increasing re-use and recycling of resources – not to mention undermining the genital development of folk living in the area.
By a cynical sleight of hand the UK Government’s waste strategy allows local authorities to meet recycling targets by increasing incineration and disposing of the contaminated ash in reckless schemes which spread it far and wide over the country - using it to build roads and cycle tracks.
Where does waste go when it is incinerated? The answer to this question is simple but unpleasant: a third of it comes out as ashes and slag, and the rest goes up into the air.
The ashes will sooner or later be dispersed to water, air and soil from the landfills where they are deposited. The part that goes up into air, in the form of flue gases, will remain in the air or be deposited in water and soil, much of it in close proximity to the incinerator, the rest far away.
If waste does not disappear when it is incinerated, what does it become? The answer to this question is even more discomforting: no one has full knowledge of what products burnt in an incinerator are transformed into. However we do know that some of the substances produced are extremely hazardous.
During incineration of household waste the intense heat causes chemical reactions in which new, and often extremely toxic, compounds are formed. For example chlorine in the waste, (from products made from PVC or materials that contain chloride salts), combines with organic molecules to form dioxins and other highly toxic and cancer causing compounds. There are many more we know nothing about.
The number of organic substances in the releases from waste incinerators may be counted in thousands. Scientists have so far identified a few hundred such substances that are hazardous.
These include some of the most toxic substances in the environment today, many of which have been listed for priority action by governments and international bodies. Hazardous chemicals routinely released to the environment by municipal waste incinerators include dioxins, furans, lead, cadmium and other metals, particulate matter (dust) including PM10's, benzene, phenols and polyaromatic hydrocarbons.
Health effects of incinerators…
The European Commission and the European Environment Agency have listed some of the better studied pollutants emitted to air land and water from incinerators, and their health effects.
Dioxin: A Class 1 Human Carcinogen (known to cause cancer in humans) and a reproductive toxicant. A recent study of dioxin exposure in Seveso, Italy associates it with an imbalance in the sex ratio of babies born, (50 males to 81 females for fathers who were exposed to dioxin when they were under 19). The European Commission states dioxins and furans "are known to produce chloracne at high exposures and a wide range of non-cancer effects are thought to occur at extremely low levels of chronic exposure, including adverse effects on reproduction, impacts on development of the unborn foetus and associations with impaired mental ability". The World Health Organisation says that general pollution from dioxins is already at the level where it may be having adverse effects on human health.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has recently stated that the risk of contracting cancer from dioxin pollution may be as high as one in a hundred. Oh my God!
Their eight year study on dioxin also states that they produce a variety of non-cancer effects in animals and humans including developmental toxicity, immunotoxicity, endocrine effects and chloracne and that part of the general population is at or near exposure levels where adverse effects can be anticipated.
Acid Gases: (hydrogen chloride, sulphur dioxide, Nitrogen oxides or NOx, hydrogen fluoride): Exposure to acid gases can cause respiratory problems.
Heavy Metals: Incinerators emit lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, arsenic and other metals to air and land. According to the European Commission incineration is a major contributor to overall emissions of mercury and cadmium in Europe. Lead is associated with learning impairment19 and behavioural problems in children. High levels of cadmium are associated with lung cancer and a range of other effects and mercury exposure has been found to affect behaviour and lead to renal damage even at low levels.
Particulate matter: (dust): A typical modern incinerator releases around 5kg of contaminated particulate matter into the air every hour it operates. According to the European Commission "particulate matter in the atmosphere has been associated with large-scale chronic adverse effects on human health". Operators of the South East London incinerator themselves estimated they released 8.6 tonnes of the notorious PM10s (very fine dust particles) into the surrounding area in 1998.
A little more on Dioxins, since they are a particularly wonderful and environmentally friendly by-product of incineration:
The Government recently warned that half of Britain’s babies and toddlers and a third of the UK’s adults already take in more dioxins into their bodies than is safe. The Government recommended a five-fold cut in the maximum allowed dioxin intake • Dioxins occur only very rarely in nature. They are formed as a result of the burning process, for example during household waste incineration. An average incinerator releases enough dioxins to give one million people the government recommended daily dose every day although not all the dioxins released will come in contact with humans or animals in the short term.
One study has found that 30 – 50 times more dioxin may actually be released by incinerators than is reported by UK measuring methods. This is due to the sporadic nature of dioxin testing at UK.
Over 95% of human exposure to dioxins comes through our food. Dioxins can travel for miles and contaminate farmland. Animals and fish take up dioxins from the food they eat and also from any soil or sediment they also consume while eating, for example cows consume a significant amount of soil when grazing.
Fat in milk, meat, fish, eggs, cheese and dairy products are our main source of dioxins.
Dioxins bioaccumulate - built up in our body fat over our lifetimes. Once in our bodies they cannot be destroyed.
Babies are exposed to high levels of dioxins built up in their mother’s breast milk during her life. Infants may take in up to 12% of their lifetime exposure to dioxins
through breast milk.
Dioxins are the most toxic substances ever produced. These solid substances are hard to dissolve in water, better in fat or organic solvents; it is acid and alkali resistant and also high temperature resistant.
Dioxins are extremely toxic at any kind of exposure, are virtually not biodegradable and bio-accumulate in the environment, which means that they concentrate in the bodies of living organisms, especially in their fatty tissue.
Dioxins are carcinogenic and cause harm to the immune system. In children they can cause congenital developmental defects, harm neural system development (including reduction of cognitive capabilities) and sexual development. In women they can reduce fertility, cause harm to ovary function and a serious womb disease called endometriosis.
Dioxins affect the function of the hormonal system of the adrenal glands and thyroids, as well as the functioning of insulin, vitamin A and melatonin. Dioxins are toxic for the liver, the spleen, thymus and skin, and they cause diabetes (damage the metabolism of fat and glucose).
Is that enough to be getting on with?
3. What can we do? Loads! –
Hopefully, comments will follow from people who have been campaigning on this issue for a long time… let’s join up!
But to keep you going, there are loads of resources at Greenpeace’s Incineration campaign homepage, including an absolutely thorough alternative waste strategy – there’s no reason whatsoever for incineration to carry on… except maybe to keep the shareholders of Onyx happy. I’m not too sure how many of them live near an incinerator.
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?SitekeyParam=D-D&CFID=1044260&CFTOKEN=68016378
An alternative waste strategy. Don't let the council get it all their own way. Use the template, downloadable from the page below "Getting to Zero Waste: A Citizen's Resource Recovery Strategy" to create a people's waste strategy for your area –
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?ucidparam=20011120123053&CFID=149309&CFTOKEN=94119259
and directions for filling in the template:
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/MultimediaFiles/Live/FullReport/4450.pdf
Incinerator buster’s resources:
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?ucidparam=20011120123053&CFID=1044260&CFTOKEN
Incinerator buster’s toolkit:
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/MultimediaFiles/Live/FullReport/4419.zip
http://www.pmac.net/hormone_science_part3.html: and www.greenpeace.org.uk) 1. So! Testicles:
You’ll be interested to learn that the fumes emitted by incinerators – like Onyx’s incinerator at Bernard Road –
http://www.multimap.com/map/browse.cgi?client=public&X=437000.999999427&Y=388000.930902856&width=700&height=400&gride=436816.999999427&gridn=387997.930902856&srec=0&coordsys=gb&db=GB&addr1=&addr2=&addr3=&pc=&advanced=&local=&localinfosel=&kw=&inmap=&table=&ovtype=&zm=0&scale=10000&out.x=9&out.y=13 … by burning plastics and other rubbish can have a negative impact on the ball game. Not just the ball game of the man burning the plastic bottles by the roadside, or his little boy lingering nearby, but on those passing by or living near places where plastic is being burned, who are breathing in the fumes or other residues. Yes, YOUR ball game.
They don’t know how much you have to breathe in over what period of time, but a correlation has been established. Recent research indicates that burning household garbage at low temperatures can have a severe impact on the sexual development of children.
The Lancet, a respected British medical journal, contained an article in May 2001 stating that teenage boys leaving near incinerators had smaller testicles and females had smaller breasts than those living in rural areas. Danish researchers led by Dr Neils Skakkebaek call this Testicular Dysgenisis Syndrome (TDS).
“TDS may be caused by genetic or environmental factors or a combination of both,” states Dr Skakkebaek. “As the rise in incidence of the various symptoms of TDS has occurred rapidly over few generations, we must consider that adverse environmental factors such as hormone disrupters could be to blame.”
2. What the hell is going on?
The UK Government, some local authorities and incinerator operators have hoodwinked the public into believing that waste incineration is somehow a green option for waste management.
Words such as "renewable", "recycling" and "sustainable" are being used by the authorities and the industry to describe the burning of municipal waste.
• Incinerators have been renamed and transformed into benign sounding "Energy from Waste" plants.
• the toxic ash they produce is "recycled" into road aggregate.
• burning discarded products and packaging is no longer a method of waste disposal but, according to the Government, a renewable energy source.
No matter what the Government elects to call them, incinerators are nothing more than huge, indoor fires in which mixed rubbish is burned.
The heat is used to make steam and generate electricity, but essentially the process is no different from the medieval practice of building a bonfire from rubbish and setting it alight. This process, whether it is called incineration or "energy recovery", is not possible without releasing hazardous substances to the air, water and soil.
This attempt to spin-doctor away the fundamental problems of incineration threatens not only human health and the environment by ignoring the serious pollution generated by incinerators, but also undermines targets and goals for reducing waste and increasing re-use and recycling of resources – not to mention undermining the genital development of folk living in the area.
By a cynical sleight of hand the UK Government’s waste strategy allows local authorities to meet recycling targets by increasing incineration and disposing of the contaminated ash in reckless schemes which spread it far and wide over the country - using it to build roads and cycle tracks.
Where does waste go when it is incinerated? The answer to this question is simple but unpleasant: a third of it comes out as ashes and slag, and the rest goes up into the air.
The ashes will sooner or later be dispersed to water, air and soil from the landfills where they are deposited. The part that goes up into air, in the form of flue gases, will remain in the air or be deposited in water and soil, much of it in close proximity to the incinerator, the rest far away.
If waste does not disappear when it is incinerated, what does it become? The answer to this question is even more discomforting: no one has full knowledge of what products burnt in an incinerator are transformed into. However we do know that some of the substances produced are extremely hazardous.
During incineration of household waste the intense heat causes chemical reactions in which new, and often extremely toxic, compounds are formed. For example chlorine in the waste, (from products made from PVC or materials that contain chloride salts), combines with organic molecules to form dioxins and other highly toxic and cancer causing compounds. There are many more we know nothing about.
The number of organic substances in the releases from waste incinerators may be counted in thousands. Scientists have so far identified a few hundred such substances that are hazardous.
These include some of the most toxic substances in the environment today, many of which have been listed for priority action by governments and international bodies. Hazardous chemicals routinely released to the environment by municipal waste incinerators include dioxins, furans, lead, cadmium and other metals, particulate matter (dust) including PM10's, benzene, phenols and polyaromatic hydrocarbons.
Health effects of incinerators…
The European Commission and the European Environment Agency have listed some of the better studied pollutants emitted to air land and water from incinerators, and their health effects.
Dioxin: A Class 1 Human Carcinogen (known to cause cancer in humans) and a reproductive toxicant. A recent study of dioxin exposure in Seveso, Italy associates it with an imbalance in the sex ratio of babies born, (50 males to 81 females for fathers who were exposed to dioxin when they were under 19). The European Commission states dioxins and furans "are known to produce chloracne at high exposures and a wide range of non-cancer effects are thought to occur at extremely low levels of chronic exposure, including adverse effects on reproduction, impacts on development of the unborn foetus and associations with impaired mental ability". The World Health Organisation says that general pollution from dioxins is already at the level where it may be having adverse effects on human health.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has recently stated that the risk of contracting cancer from dioxin pollution may be as high as one in a hundred. Oh my God!
Their eight year study on dioxin also states that they produce a variety of non-cancer effects in animals and humans including developmental toxicity, immunotoxicity, endocrine effects and chloracne and that part of the general population is at or near exposure levels where adverse effects can be anticipated.
Acid Gases: (hydrogen chloride, sulphur dioxide, Nitrogen oxides or NOx, hydrogen fluoride): Exposure to acid gases can cause respiratory problems.
Heavy Metals: Incinerators emit lead, cadmium, mercury, chromium, arsenic and other metals to air and land. According to the European Commission incineration is a major contributor to overall emissions of mercury and cadmium in Europe. Lead is associated with learning impairment19 and behavioural problems in children. High levels of cadmium are associated with lung cancer and a range of other effects and mercury exposure has been found to affect behaviour and lead to renal damage even at low levels.
Particulate matter: (dust): A typical modern incinerator releases around 5kg of contaminated particulate matter into the air every hour it operates. According to the European Commission "particulate matter in the atmosphere has been associated with large-scale chronic adverse effects on human health". Operators of the South East London incinerator themselves estimated they released 8.6 tonnes of the notorious PM10s (very fine dust particles) into the surrounding area in 1998.
A little more on Dioxins, since they are a particularly wonderful and environmentally friendly by-product of incineration:
The Government recently warned that half of Britain’s babies and toddlers and a third of the UK’s adults already take in more dioxins into their bodies than is safe. The Government recommended a five-fold cut in the maximum allowed dioxin intake • Dioxins occur only very rarely in nature. They are formed as a result of the burning process, for example during household waste incineration. An average incinerator releases enough dioxins to give one million people the government recommended daily dose every day although not all the dioxins released will come in contact with humans or animals in the short term.
One study has found that 30 – 50 times more dioxin may actually be released by incinerators than is reported by UK measuring methods. This is due to the sporadic nature of dioxin testing at UK.
Over 95% of human exposure to dioxins comes through our food. Dioxins can travel for miles and contaminate farmland. Animals and fish take up dioxins from the food they eat and also from any soil or sediment they also consume while eating, for example cows consume a significant amount of soil when grazing.
Fat in milk, meat, fish, eggs, cheese and dairy products are our main source of dioxins.
Dioxins bioaccumulate - built up in our body fat over our lifetimes. Once in our bodies they cannot be destroyed.
Babies are exposed to high levels of dioxins built up in their mother’s breast milk during her life. Infants may take in up to 12% of their lifetime exposure to dioxins
through breast milk.
Dioxins are the most toxic substances ever produced. These solid substances are hard to dissolve in water, better in fat or organic solvents; it is acid and alkali resistant and also high temperature resistant.
Dioxins are extremely toxic at any kind of exposure, are virtually not biodegradable and bio-accumulate in the environment, which means that they concentrate in the bodies of living organisms, especially in their fatty tissue.
Dioxins are carcinogenic and cause harm to the immune system. In children they can cause congenital developmental defects, harm neural system development (including reduction of cognitive capabilities) and sexual development. In women they can reduce fertility, cause harm to ovary function and a serious womb disease called endometriosis.
Dioxins affect the function of the hormonal system of the adrenal glands and thyroids, as well as the functioning of insulin, vitamin A and melatonin. Dioxins are toxic for the liver, the spleen, thymus and skin, and they cause diabetes (damage the metabolism of fat and glucose).
Is that enough to be getting on with?
3. What can we do? Loads! –
Hopefully, comments will follow from people who have been campaigning on this issue for a long time… let’s join up!
But to keep you going, there are loads of resources at Greenpeace’s Incineration campaign homepage, including an absolutely thorough alternative waste strategy – there’s no reason whatsoever for incineration to carry on… except maybe to keep the shareholders of Onyx happy. I’m not too sure how many of them live near an incinerator.
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?SitekeyParam=D-D&CFID=1044260&CFTOKEN=68016378 An alternative waste strategy. Don't let the council get it all their own way. Use the template, downloadable from the page below "Getting to Zero Waste: A Citizen's Resource Recovery Strategy" to create a people's waste strategy for your area –
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?ucidparam=20011120123053&CFID=149309&CFTOKEN=94119259 and directions for filling in the template:
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/MultimediaFiles/Live/FullReport/4450.pdf Incinerator buster’s resources:
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/contentlookup.cfm?ucidparam=20011120123053&CFID=1044260&CFTOKEN Incinerator buster’s toolkit:
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/MultimediaFiles/Live/FullReport/4419.zip 
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