However, the professor leading the investigation said today that the research team had had no data on incinerator emissions available to carry out the study.
The study, published this week in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, was based on historical data from the period 1956 – 1993, before tighter emissions controls were brought in for incinerators in England and Wales with the number of facilities cut to 16.
The report looked into cases of reported still births, neonatal deaths and lethal congenital anomalies in the Cumbria region of North West England. Among almost 245,000 births in that period, of which 3,234 (1.32%) were stillborn, a further 2,663 babies (1.08%) died shortly after birth, and 1,569 (0.64%) had congenital abnormalities.
Over the 37 years the study covered, there were four incinerators in the region and three crematoria. The study found “no increased risk of stillbirth or death shortly after birth, overall among babies whose mothers lived near incinerators. But after taking account of influential factors, such as birth order and multiple births, the risk of neural tube defects, particularly spina bifida, was 17% higher and heart defects 12% higher.”
However, calling for more studies to be carried out on incinerators as 13 new facilities are currently being proposed in England and Wales, the researchers stated that their findings could not be used to “infer a causal effect from the statistical associations reported in this study”.
Controls
As well as studying the effects of incinerators before the new controls and emissions standards brought in 1990 and 1996, the research only focussed on one geographical area.
Speaking to letsrecycle.com, the leader of the research team Professor Louise Parker said that their study did not have any emissions data available for the area from 1956 – 1993, but insisted that there is “something there in the environment that needs further investigation”.
She said: “We're very much operating in a time before legislation brought in tougher standards and improved controls – this is a historical finding – but what it shows is that it's important that in the future, the authorities maintain a close watch on incinerators and maintain the necessary controls.”
Developments in medical science and healthcare over the years were also not taken into account in the figures, the study noted.
DEFRA
The government is currently undertaking its own study of the health effects of UK incinerators and other waste management facilities. Carried out by Enviros, the study will be the “first side by side analysis of different waste management facilities” according to a spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
But the study will not involve any new research carried out involving waste facilities – it will just compare existing data on different waste treatment options.
The DEFRA spokesman explained: “It will pull together the different reams of material on the different waste technologies in the first study of its kind. We expect it to be reviewed over the summer and it should be published in the Autumn.”
The Treasury is thought to be following the study closely, as it decides on a possible incineration tax.
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