The Management of Health Hazards Related to Municipal Solid Waste on Fire in Europe: An Environmental Justice Issue?

Abstract

Landfilling should be the last option in an integrated Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) management approach. In the European Union (EU), the policy framework to protect the environment and the public health against the impact of health hazards related to urban solid waste management has been consistently implemented in recent decades. A growing interest in the negative impact of fires in waste landfills on the environment and people’s health was reported in some European countries. In Italy, an increasing occurrence of arsons in MSW and landfills has been reported in recent years. During the summer of 2012, a multi-site arson occurred in the Palermo Municipal solid waste landfill of Bellolampo (western Sicily), giving rise to an environmental emergency of public health concern. Local health authorities reacted by creating an inter-institutional multidisciplinary task force with the aim to implement measures to prevent and control the risk of exposure by delimiting a protection area to be taken under strict monitoring. Environmental and epidemiological investigations were put in place by air, soil, and farm product sampling. A syndromic surveillance of the exposed population was conducted as well. The air monitoring stations system in place detected an increase in the concentrations of dioxins and dioxin-like substances with the PM10 highest emission pick documented within the first 24 h and estimated at about 60 μg/m3. Levels of heavy metals above the limits permitted by law were detected in the top- and sub-soil samples collected within the two landfill sampling sites and also in other nearby sites. Non-conforming concentration values of dioxins and dioxin-like substances were detected in samples taken from farms, milk, and water. The health syndromic surveillance did not document any daily increase in the notification of emergency admissions related to acute respiratory diseases or any other health effect potentially related to the waste arson, but these findings were limited by the non-systematic collection of data. The experience reported in the present case report, as declined within the European Union policy framework and in the view of environmental justice, documented the need to structure a permanent collaboration between the different institutional actors involved in environmental and public health protection activities in order to develop specific protocols to manage events related to the occurrence of waste-related environmental emergencies or disasters.

[Retracted] Explore the Conflict and Resolution of Pollution NIMBY Facility Construction in the Context of New Media: An Evolutionary Game Theoretical Approach

“…e planning and construction of waste disposal facilities, sewage treatment plants, thermal power plants, and other pollution facilities have been repeatedly opposed by the surrounding public and even stopped because of the fierce protest [12][13][14][15]. However, the suspension of construction is not the best solution to the problem.…”

Occurrence and ecotoxicological effects of fires at municipal solid waste landfills

“…The thermal radiation from a fire in a landfill site can be intense and make it very difficult for firefighters to approach its source to apply extinguishing media. Owing to these reasons their characteristics and mitigation measures have been receiving attention from the recent research fraternity (Chavan et al, 2019;Manjunatha et al, 2020;Mikalsen et al, 2021;Milosevic et al, 2018;Mazzucco et al, 2020;Morales S et al, 2018).…”

“…SSLF can damage the landfill gas and leachate collection system (Mazzucco et al, 2020); even the service life of High-density polyethene geomembrane will reduce due to the high-temperature stress (Chavan et al, 2019;Zhang et al, 2022). It must be stressed that high temperature affects the performance of the bottom liner geomembrane, which contains the leachate from subsurface, and at temperature ≈100 o C, it is practically destroyed, allowing the unimpeded transport of contaminants to the surrounding geoenvironment.…”

Safety at waste and recycling industry: Detection and mitigation of waste fire accidents

“…The issue of fires in the waste and recycling industry, which is referred as an epidemic by Fogelman, (2018), can have serious socio-economic, environmental, and occupational health and safety consequences. The hazard of waste fires, due to increased frequency and severity, is a growing concern for many countries around the globe, such as the United Kingdom, Sweden, Austria, Germany (Nigl et al 2020), USA (Fogelman, 2018), Italy (Mazzucco et al 2020) and Thailand (Wiwanitkit, 2016). The repercussions of waste fires are local, regional as well as global in nature, and have both short-and long-term consequences.…”

“…lead to fish mortality (Barber et al 2003). Due to its highly toxic nature, waste fire emissions often give rise to mass scale environmental and health related emergencies for downwind residing population (Mazzucco et al 2020;Wiwanitkit, 2016). Studies provided evidence that emissions from waste fires pose chronic health hazards, such as lung cancer (Wiwanitkit, 2016), pregnancy disorders (Mazzucco et al 2019) and pulmonary cardiovascular and neurological ailments (Adetona et al 2020).…”