UNCERTAINTY, FIELD INVESTIGATION AND DECI SION - LEARNING FROM THE MONTCHANIN LANDFILL, FRANCE

Three epidemiological studies were conducted at the urgent request of the administrative authority of the French department of Saone-et-Loir e, in order to assess the health impact of volatile emissions from an industrial wastes dump situated in the vicinity of dwellings in the ci ty of Montchanin, France (6 000 inhabitants). These studies were imple mented in the context of deep concern within the local population. Two dealt with the diagnosed morbidity before (retrospective follow-up st udy), or after (case-control study) the closure of the site. The third one dealt with mortality, for several causes of death liable to be re lated to the gazes emitted by the landfill (SMR analysis). Due to the small size of the population, these studies had limited statistical po wer. Despite these uncertainties, the authors claim that the decision to close the site was based on sound health considerations and recomme nd that the site be cleaned up. This experience illustrates the useful ness and the limitations of field epidemiological evaluations of envir onmental nuisances.