Atmospheric Exposure Assessment around Municipal Solid Waste Incinerators

Background: The number of municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWIs) in the UK is increasing due to EU restrictions on the use of landfills. There is public concern over any possible health risks associated with incineration and the current evidence base is limited. An ongoing national study is investigating possible links between MSWIs emissions and birth outcomes requiring exposure estimates of MSWI emissions at postcode of residence. Methods: The Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling System Urban (ADMS-Urban) modelling package was used to model daily ground level concentrations of particles with a diameter <10µm from all 22 UK MSWIs from 2003-2010. An extensive sensitivity analysis was carried out for each MSWI for a number of dispersion model input parameters; surface roughness length (SR), Monin-Obukhov length (MO), topography and meteorological data. Additionally, daily particulate emissions data for each flue were obtained. Missing emission values were imputed by using the median emission for the year m...