Impact on Health of Emissions from Landfill Sites RCE 18

Synopsis

Most waste in the UK has traditionally been disposed of to landfill sites. These can generate considerable public concern about the health effects of emissions and there have been suggested links to a range of health effects including cancer and birth defects. The Health Protection Agency (HPA) recognises that the practice of disposing of waste materials to landfill can present a pollution risk and a potential health risk. However, modern landfills are subject to strict regulatory control which requires sites to be designed and operated such that there is no significant impact on the environment or human health. An assessment of the health risks posed by landfill sites and other forms of waste management was published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in 2004, incorporating a review of the assessment by the Royal Society. The HPA has now carried out a review of more recent research into the suggested links between emissions from landfill sites and effects on health. This review encompasses the results of a number of epidemiological studies, detailed monitoring results from a major project funded by the Environment Agency, and advice sought from the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment. The HPA concludes that there has been no new evidence to change the previous advice that living close to a well-managed landfill site does not pose a significant risk to human health.
It is important that research continues to inform the risk of exposure from UK landfill sites. This should include the development of more sensitive sampling and analytical methods for pollutants detected around landfill sites and, ideally, surveys of pollutant concentrations around more sites. It would also be valuable if more complete toxicological data were available for some of these pollutants. Detailed sitespecific risk assessment should remain an important part of the permitting and management process.
The HPA is aware that concerns about the health effects of landfill sites often stem from historic sites. However, it is not possible to provide definitive advice regarding historic or closed landfill sites which pre-dated waste management regulation in the UK, due to the large variability in wastes which entered these sites, and the variability in their design and operation when open. Where landfills are the subject of local concern, site-specific monitoring and/or modelling is needed to aid any risk assessment and address any uncertainty about the nature of any emissions.
The role of the HPA is to provide expert advice on public health matters to government, stakeholders and the public.

Last reviewed: 28 July 2011