The findings of a comparative study, released in France last week, have linked the operations of municipal solid waste incinerators to deformities in babies.

About 200 children in the Rhone-Alpes region were born deformed after such plants had been operating over the past 10 years, according to Paris-based National Centre for Independent Information on Waste (CNIID).

CIND director Pierre-Emmanuel Neurohr ( photo ) said environmental NGOs and victims are considering suing the French government based on the findings.

The centre is the secretariat for the national coalition against waste import, export and incineration, a resource-sharing network of more than 230 grassroots groups.

In a press release dated July 3, the centre said news of the comparative study "constitutes one of the worst scandals a minister of the environment (and her predecessors) ever had to face in France". A copy of the press statement was obtained by malaysiakini .

In January, the centre highlighted an epidemiological study - similar to recent British research - comparing "the number of births of deformed babies before and after installation of incinerators".

The British study was on adverse outcomes of pregnant women living around incinerators and crematoriums.

The French study raises the possibility of "significant risks for the exposed population" in relation to congenital deformities involving "chromosomic anomalies and other major malformations".

It further says that problems created by incinerators are not confined to "small and dirty incinerators" but that "the biggest and the most beautiful ones" were the worst dioxin-emitting plants in France.

Belgian study

DAP national publicity secretary Ronnie Liu said similar findings all over the world point out very clearly that no incinerator is safe.

He cited a 1998 study of a small incinerator operating for 20 years in the township of Medlarstreet, located less than 1km from the incinerator. It had a daily capacity to treat 150 tonnes of trash.

"The study showed that 71% of the 40,000 persons in that town had died of various cancers, including lung, throat, urinary tract, liver, intestine, breast, colorectal and cervical," he said in a statement.

Liu said the report had been dedicated to all children who had died of cancer and due to serious health problems caused by the incinerator.

Yet in Malaysia, he noted, the government was pushing ahead with its proposal to build a 1,500-tonne incinerator in Broga, near Semenyih.

"They simply refuse to listen to the people (protesting the move) or to study the information submitted," he added.

Local protest

The Broga plant, near Semenyih, is scheduled to start operations in 2007, to treat a monthly average of 5,000 tonnes of household trash generated in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.

The project site is currently being evaluated for potential environmental impact, with the study to be completed by month's end.

Residents have claimed that the incinerator will not only be the cause of health hazards, but also environmental problems because of its unproven technology.

Local and international anti-incinerator campaigners have long argued that emissions of toxic gases and heavy metals from such plants are the causes of cancer and other diseases.

A pro-tem committee has asked the government to justify its claims that the plant's safety design and operations will not pose hazards to human health or the environment.

The government, however, has ignored public requests for full disclosure of details, in particular the funding arrangements.