You are here:
METAL BEHAVIOR DURING MEDICAL WASTE INCINERATION
Citation:
Lee, C. AND G. Huffman. METAL BEHAVIOR DURING MEDICAL WASTE INCINERATION. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/A-94/227 (NTIS PB95130738).
Description:
Medical waste contains toxic metals such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. onsequently, the incineration of medical waste may result in the emissions of trace metals into the environment, if incinerators are not properly designed and operated. PA's Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory initiated a study in 1988 to document what is known about medical waste treatment, particularly in the area of medical waste incineration. his paper is to summarize the findings from this study regarding the behavior of metals in incineration processes. ighlights of these findings are as follows: (1) Lead and cadmium are the two most-often-found metals in medical waste; (2) Metals can partition into different phases (gas, liquid or solid) but cannot be destroyed during incineration; (3) There are several potential pathways that metals follow to reach the environment; they exit incinerators with siftings, bottom ash, fly ash, scrubber waste, and flue gas; (4) Data on the capture efficiency of metals by air pollution control equipment used at medical waste incinerators is very limited; and (6) Wet scrubbers generally capture cadmium moderately well but normally perform poorly in removing chromium and lead. abric filter systems efficiently capture all metals.