STUDY DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS FOR EVALUATING COMMUNITY-HEALTH EFFECTS OF HAZARDOUS-WASTE INCINERATORS

Incineration is an increasingly employed option for treating hazardous waste, but possible health effects of hazardous waste incinerator emi ssions in surrounding communities have received only cursory investiga tion. Two approaches for assessing such effects, risk assessment and e nvironmental epidemiology, are described and compared. Risk associated with hazardous waste incineration has been assessed previously based on generic emission data. Little is known regarding emissions from spe cific incinerators and their temporal variations. Thus, an epidemiolog ic approach was chosen here, partially because it is robust with respe ct to uncertainties in exposure estimates. Study design concepts and t heir application to an existing hazardous waste incinerator are discus sed.