Environmental Chemicals Unit
Health Effects in relation to Landfill sites
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Environmental Chemicals Unit Health Effects in relation to Landfill sites |
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Environmental Chemicals Unit |
Background Study by the Small Area Health Statistics Unit (SAHSU) - full report (August 2001) Committee on Toxicology (COT) Statement - SAHSU study on landfill sites (August 2001) Research programme on the impacts on health of landfill sites (updated December 2003) Department of Health press release - SASHU study on landfill sites (August 2001) Report of IEH Workshop - Executive Summary (May 1999) Background Most controlled waste in Britain - that is, household, commercial and industrial waste - is disposed of to landfill. In England and Wales, we currently dispose of around 80% of our municipal solid waste to landfill, incinerate about 14%, and recycle the rest. All waste disposal activities at landfill sites have been tightly regulated since a licensing system was introduced, originally under the Control of Pollution Act 1974. This system was superseded by the waste management licensing system now in force under Part II of the Environmental Protection Act 1990. The purpose of the licensing system is to ensure that waste is recovered or disposed of in ways which protect the environment and human health. Within the planning regime, the emphasis is on an engineering approach to landfill design and construction based on site-specific risk assessment, underpinned by quality management and good operational practice, to achieve a high standard of implementation and environmental protection. Despite these controls, concern continues to be expressed about whether landfill sites might present a health risk for people living nearby. A number of scientific studies have investigated whether there are higher than usual levels of adverse health events, such as cancer or congenital anomalies, in populations living near to sites but no clear picture has emerged. Many of these studies investigated old sites, uncontrolled dumps or sites where significant off-site migration of chemicals was detected, and the results cannot readily be extrapolated to landfill sites in general. In August 1998 a study of the incidence of congenital anomalies near hazardous waste landfill sites in Europe (the EUROHAZCON study) was published in the Lancet (Dolk et al Lancet, Volume 352, pp 423-427 and a relevant commentary on page 417). This study investigated pregnancy outcomes in women living within 7 kilometres of 21 hazardous waste landfill sites in five countries, including the UK. Overall, it found an increased incidence of congenital anomaly in babies whose mothers lived close to a landfill site compared to those who lived further away. The authors concluded that there was a need for further investigation to determine whether the observed association between congenital anomaly and landfill sites was a causal one. The Department sought expert advice on the paper from the Committee on the Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT). It advised that there were difficulties in interpreting the findings of the study, because of inadequate exposure estimation, site heterogeneity, and the inability to control for individual confounding factors, but agreed that there was a need for further research. The Government subsequently commissioned the Small Area Health Statistics Unit (SAHSU) at Imperial College to carry out a national study of adverse health effects around landfill sites. The study has now been completed and is published in the British Medical Journal (Elliott et al BMJ 2001: 323: 363-8 : available at http://www.bmj.com). A fuller report of the study can be found at the Department of Health website. The study found a small increase in congenital anomalies in populations living close to landfill sites, but the increase was much smaller than reported in the EUROHAZCON study. The COT also considered this study and noted that the findings for birth outcomes were not consistent, and that the study provided no evidence that the rates of anomalies increased after sites had opened. The opinion of the COT can be found at: http://www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk/landfill.htm. Also in January 1999, DH and DETR sponsored a meeting of invited experts at the MRC Institute of Environment and Health (IEH) in Leicester to discuss the data on landfill sites and health effects, to identify gaps in the knowledge, and to agree priorities for further research to fill these gaps. Subsequently, the Government announced a new research programme on the impacts on health of landfill sites. This is designed to provide further scientific data to support the development of Government policy on landfill in general and to inform the debate on the possible effects on human health of landfill. It includes projects on the known causes and the geographical variation of congenital anomalies, to help put into context the results on congenital anomalies and landfill sites. The current status of the research work is available at: http://www.advisorybodies.doh.gov.uk/landup.htm |