Spatial And Temporal National Exposures To Municipal Waste Incinerator (MWI) Emissions In The UK

Introduction The number of Municipal Waste Incinerator (MWI) facilities in the UK are increasing due to European Union (EU) restrictions on landfill use; however, there is public concern over possible health risks associated with incineration. Emissions from incinerators are subject to stringent EU regulations aiming to limit emissions. This ongoing national study is investigating possible associations between emissions from MWI incinerators operating under EU regulations and adverse birth outcomes. Methods The Atmospheric Dispersion Modelling System Urban (ADMS-Urban) dispersion model was used to model daily ground-level PM10 concentrations at post code centroids within a 10km radius around 22 MWIs in the UK during 2003-2010. Data quality checks and sensitivity analyses were completed to determine how to impute missing emissions and meteorological data, and define the surface roughness length and Monin-Obukhov length to use. Terrain files were used for 10 of the 22 MWIs as they showed significant variati...