by Mr. Jan A. Krajewski

1. Places where dioxins are possibly present in Poland

Dioxins may be present, at least in small quantities, in all environmental settings. In our attempt to determine places where dioxins may be present in quantities able to affect human health, we have used information available in the literature on human activities that may result in dioxins being released to the environment. It is generally known that dioxins are not manufactured for market sale. Data published in various countries on the concentration of environmental dioxins constitute another valuable source of the information.

According to the general opinion, dioxins are generated as a by-product during the manufacture of chlorine-containing chemicals. The chemical industry is thought to be the first major source of dioxins. From that source, dioxins are dispersed as contaminants of a large number of products, such as pesticides, or during chemical emergency situations. Incineration of waste including products that contain chlorine (such as PVC) constitutes another major source of dioxins.

Other sources of dioxin emission are associated with improper use of chlorine-containing chemicals, preparations or wastes, for example spent lubricating oils used as a fuel in heating installations.

Very little information is available on environmental dioxin concentrations in Poland. The Cracow Technical University's Institute of Inorganic Chemistry & Engineering run by Dr. Adam Grochowalski is the only centre performing determinations of environmental dioxin concentrations in Poland. Because of high unit costs of a single determination, only several ten determinations have been performed. These refer to dioxin concentrations in the atmospheric air of the City of Cracow and in the flue dust and soot (Grochowalski 1997). The results suggest that the air of the City of Cracow is more polluted with dioxins than the air in Berlin or Hamburg, and the mean dioxin concentration in the city of Cracow in winter was 5 pg TEQ/m³.

2. Chemical industry

For several years already in Poland, chlorophenol-based wood impregnation, fungicide and pesticide formulations are no longer produced. Nevertheless, two chemical plants in Poland manufacture derivatives of chlorophenoxyacetic acid. The Nowa Sarzyna plant manufactures pesticides containing chlorophenoxyacetic acid that may be contaminated with dioxins; dioxins may be formed during incineration of waste containing chlorophenoxyacetic acid in the plant's boiler room. The Brzeg Dolny plant manufactures, among other things also chlorophenoxyacetic acid-based pesticides. Small quantities of dioxins may be formed during the production of the acid. The plant operates a heat and power station where waste is incinerated.

3. Waste incinerating plants

Incineration of chlorine-containing chemical wastes is accompanied by emission of dioxins to the environment. According to data supplied by the Institute for Waste Management, there are 800 waste manufacturers and 3400 waste dumping sites (including 1300 sites for dumping dangerous wastes).

The State Environmental Protection Inspectorate analyzed dangerous waste management in Poland in 1994. The results show that the management of dangerous waste at that time did not meet the relevant regulations. Major faults included for example joint deposition of various waste types, improper waste identification and incineration.

The report prepared by the Inspectorate suggests that many dangerous wastes be incinerated in the furnaces of production plants' power or heating installations. No reference can be found in the report to the conditions of incineration of communal and dangerous waste, such as for example waste generated during chlorophenoxyacetic acid production process.

The Polish Society for Waste Recycling has started the campaign against erecting new waste incineration plants. In the opinion of the Society, waste incineration plants are harmful, their operation should be discontinued, and new plants should not be built.

This opinion is contrary to the opinions prevailing currently in the developed countries, which say that waste incineration constitutes the most efficient method of waste disposal. Accordingly, many new waste incinerating installations are being erected in the U.S.A. The operation of the waste incinerating installations is permissible in the U.S.A. on condition that most advanced technologies are employed in their construction and operation. This pre-requisite is enforced very rigorously. In practice, it means that the level of contaminants released from a waste incinerating installation built before 1997 must not exceed 30 ng TEQ/m³ dry waste, while the corresponding value for an installation built in 1997 or later is 13 ng TEQ/m³ dry waste.

In the U.S.A. and West Europe, rotary clinker kilns are often used to incinerate waste, as it has been found that the temperature over 1200^oC and long dwelling time tend to decompose dioxins. Also, clinker production is made less expensive due to additional heat obtained from the waste.

Installations for adopting an existing cement plant so as to make it suitable for waste incineration have been developed also in Poland. Unfortunately, an attempt to start such an installation in the Dzialoszyn Cement Plant was given up as the inhabitants living near the plant opposed the project.

Thus, dangerous and communal wastes are not incinerated in Poland in an optimum way capable of ensuring lowest emission levels and, as a result, environmental pollution and the risk to human health are increased.

4. Other sources

Dioxins are released also during combustion of leaded petrol in improperly adjusted internal combustion engines not provided with catalysts. Elevated concentrations of dioxins are found in Polish towns where road traffic is heavy. This source seems to be particularly important in Poland where, as evidenced by the results of the work by Grochowalski, a high proportion of outdated cars use leaded petrol.

Human activities involving ignorance, malevolence or neglect may result in human exposure to dioxins. Spent lubricating or transformer oils used to impregnate wood, or as a fuel in boiler rooms to reduce operating costs may be quoted here as an example of such mispractices.

5. Populations probably exposed to dioxins in Poland

After having reviewed relevant literature, analyzed the data from the work by Grochowalski (1997) and considered the information on the location of the plants manufacturing chloroorganic herbicides, it has been assumed that the populations possibly exposed to dioxins include:

6. Application to the INCO-COPERNICUS Programme for financing research on exposure to dioxins in Poland.

Determination of dioxins in the environmental samples is very expensive. Approximate cost of analysing a single sample ranges between US$600 and US$800. To enable comprehensive research on dioxins present in various environmental settings, and to make possible assessment of exposure to dioxins and of the associated health risk to selected populations in Poland, it was suggested to apply for participation in the INCO-COPERNICUS Programme. The INCO-COPERNICUS Programme has been started in order to ensure permanent cooperation between the West and East Europe in solving (among other things) scientific research problems. Programme's schedule for 1997/98 provides for financing research projects on health and environmental pollution, and air pollution-related health effects in particular.

The Umeaa University of Sweden, the Institute of Public Health of Budapest, Hungary, and the University of Venice, Italy, were invited to participate in the project.

Joint research project was filed under the title:

The application was registered as item 3018. The aim of the project is thorough assessment of exposure of human population to PCDDs, PCDFs and polycyclic hydrocarbons.

Last month we were informed that the above application was not appreciated sufficiently high to be financed by INCO-COPERNICUS.

7. Conclusions

1. Chemical industry manufacturing chlorinated herbicides and emergency situations associated with that manufacture, as well as incineration of dangerous and communal waste constitute the most important source of dioxins released to the atmosphere.

2. Workers involved in the production of chlorophenoxyacetic acid, people living near plants incinerating waste containing by-products of chlorophenoxyacetic acid production process, inhabitants of big urban agglomerations living in the streets where traffic is heavy, and applicators of organic herbicides are at the greatest risk of being exposed to dioxins.

3. Dioxin concentration in human lipid tissue and in blood lipids is the best indicator of past exposure.

4. In spite that exposure of Polish population to dioxins has not been assessed, Polish public opinion is very keen on pollution by this category of chemicals, which often makes proper waste management difficult.

5. The research project, when financed by INCO-COPERNICUS, would offer a chance, for the first time in Poland, to collect information on dioxins present in various environmental settings and assess the hazards to the health of selected populations.