Health Risk Assessment of Hazardous Waste Incinerator Stack Emissions

ABSTRACT The operating performance of one of the most modern incineration facilities in West Germany has been extensively tested by German and U.S. environmental authorities to provide a basis for evaluating operating characteristics and establishing future regulations. Using the Inhalation Exposure Methodology (IEM) to estimate the offsite exposure to 25 metals and PCB's in the stack emissions, a health risk assessment was performed of the risk of adverse health effects due to exposures to stack emissions assuming a variety of exposure conditions. Exposure guidelines were developed to assess the relative risk of non-carcinogenic effects. The densely populated Newark/New York area population was selected as the population being hypothetically exposed to these stack emissions. Neither the metals nor the organics were found to pose a high risk to offsite populations under normal operating conditions. Offsite concentrations of stack emissions are as much as up to several orders of magnitude below "acceptable...