Solid Waste, Air Pollution and Health

Abstract

While much has been written on each individual subject, very little has been published that attempts to clarify the direct and indirect associations among the incidence of air pollutant related disease, the emission of air pollutants, and their relation to solid waste generation and disposal. This study attempts to clarify these relationships. After the appropriate literature is surveyed, clarification of the total mass of air pollutants emitted by solid wastes disposal is presented. Most important, the misrepresentation of this air pollutant source, as presented in the most widely published data, is reinterpreted and clarified. The revised data show that solid waste disposal contributes more than twice as much (9.7% of total) as presented in widely published data.

A development and tabulation of the relative health effects of the most prevalent air pollutants follows. Walther’s "tolerance factors" and "health effect factors" for these pollutants are presented and corrected with the use of the clarified source data presently devised. The revised data show that the contribution of solid waste disposal to the total air pollutant health effect is 9.9%, as compared to 4.5% originally reported by Walther. Comparisons are made with the major air pollutant sources. A brief analysis of the value of new resource recovery—solid waste disposal technologies in diminishing the adverse impact of disposal concludes the study.