Family seeks statistics on toxin emitting hospital incinerator

By By Meng Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-28 07:51

A resident in Chaoyang district is taking the city's environmental protection bureau to court for not offering information regarding toxic emissions released by a nearby hospital waste incineration plant.

Yang Zi, who lives 2.5 km from the Gaoantun medical waste incineration plant, brought the case to Haidian court on Monday, hoping to get full details of incinerator emissions, including the amount of heavy metals and dioxins.

Yang has lived in Wangxiangxintian, a residential complex, since 2005 - the same year the incineration plant started operation. Since moving in, Yang and her family claim to have been periodically affected by respiratory diseases.

She sent an application to the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau in January, asking for data regarding incineration emissions, but failed to get a clear answer.

"We live in fear. We know dioxins can lead to cancer and can't be detected by smell. We have no idea what we are breathing in every day," Yang told METRO on Tuesday.

She said her family rarely opens their windows and she has been forced to send her child to a school in the city center so the 13-year-old can escape the polluted area.

The Gaoantun medical waste incineration plant is the largest in Beijing, with a daily processing capacity of 30 tons. The incinerator plant sits next to the Gaoantun landfill facility, which was built in 2002 and received about 4,000 tons of household waste a day by 2008, almost a quarter of the total daily trash generated in Beijing.

According to Zhang Hao, Yang's lawyer, China's freedom of information policy is unclear. However, he believes all citizens should be able to apply for the information from government.

"The environmental protection bureau's website does not specify who can or cannot apply for information. But during the trial yesterday, their lawyer said only those living within 800 m of the incinerator can apply for it," Zhang said Tuesday.

Zhang said the environmental protection bureau has offered nine trial operation licenses to the incineration plant - each lasting six months.

"If the emission reached the safety standard, why hasn't the bureau given the plant a permanent license?" he said.

Zhao Zhangyuan, a retired expert previously with the State Environmental Protection Administration, said dioxins are a group of dangerous chemicals known as persistent organic pollutants with highly toxic potential.

"Some experts argue that as long as garbage is burned at between 360 and 850 C, hazardous emissions, including dioxins, are destroyed within seconds. In practice, it is very difficult to control the burning temperature," Zhao said.

The result of the case will be announced later.