Abstract |
EPA'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. This paper is to summarize the findings from this study regarding the behavior of metals in incineration processes. Highlights 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. Fabric filter systems efficiently capture all metals. |