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GROUP URGES GOVERNMENT TO SCRAP INCINERATOR USE By Nation (South Africa) Johannesburg, SOUTH AFRICA, 4 December 2000 -- Owing to concerns about incinerators' environmental and health risks, the newly formed Global Alliance for Incineration Alternatives (Gaia) has called on the government to immediately cancel its plan to acquire incinerators. The alliance urged the government to employ an open, transparent public process to select alternative waste-treatment options. Gaia is an international coalition dedicated to stopping waste incineration and promoting alternatives that would protect the environment and public health. The alliance held its first organizational meeting near Johannesburg on Friday. Tara Buakamsri of Greenpeace Southeast Asia said that multinational companies were flooding Thailand with proposals to build incinerators, despite overwhelming evidence of the dangers posed by such facilities. Gaia organizer Ann Leonard said people all over the world were fighting against the use of incinerators. Toxic emissions from the incineration of municipal, medical and hazardous waste pose a major threat to the environment and to public health, she said. Exposure to such incinerator emissions as dioxins, furans, PCBs and heavy metals can increase the risk of cancer, reproductive disorders, birth defects and immune-system dysfunction, she said. Many of the chemicals released through incineration accumulate in the fatty tissues of animals, fish and humans, with greater levels in higher forms of life, she said. Toxins are passed to developing fetuses and to nursing infants through breast milk, she said, and infants are the most vulnerable to toxic pollutants. Gaia supports phasing out incineration in favor of a combination of alternatives such as clean production, product reuse and recycling and the treatment of waste as a resource so as to stimulate economic growth. The development and implementation of safer non-incineration technologies for hazardous and medical waste can provide real solutions, Leonard added. Gaia pledged to launch public campaigns at regional and global levels to stop the spread of waste incineration, to phase out existing incinerators and to promote cleaner and more sustainable resource-management practices. Marcia Carroll Multinationals Resource Center P.O. Box 19405, Washington, DC 20036 USA Email: marcia@essential.org Tel +1 202.387.8030; Fax +1 202.234.5176 FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Basel Action Network is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a `fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond `fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.  More News