Monitoring metals near a hazardous waste incinerator. Temporal trend in soils and herbage.

In recent years, incineration has been demonstrated to be a commercially available technology for hazardous waste (HW) disposal (Richter and Johnke, 2004). However, because of the potential adverse effects of toxic emissions, waste incinerators are still an important cause for concern for the public. In spite of that, compliance with current EU emissions has vastly reduced the probability of adverse health effects (Glorennec et al., 2005). With respect to metals, a number of studies have shown that these elements are emitted by industrial, medical and municipal waste incinerators (Schumacher et al., 1997; Rimmer et al., 2006). Filter ash is an especially problematic residue because it contains high metal concentrations (Lisk et al., 1989). After combustion in modern HW incinerators (HWIs), metals contained in HW are mainly collected in bottom and fly ash, with only small quantity of metals being discharged from the stack as particulate matter or vapor (Jung et al., 2004). However, the atmospheric emission of these elements is a matter of concern.