Masakatsu Hiraoka

(Professor of Kyoto University)

Abstract

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs) are well konwn to be the most toxic substances. Incineration of wastes seems to be one of the major sources of PCDDs and related compounds with serious public concern. Since the detection of PCDDs from the municipal solid waste incinerators was reported in a newspaper in the autumn of 1983 in Japan, to investigate the generation mechanism and control the emission of PCDDs became very important. The Ministry of Health and Welfare had launched the five-year research project in 1985 for investigating the analytical method, the formation mechanism and the emission control of PCDDs concerning municipal solid waste incinerators, and the author participated in this project as a member of the committee. This paper overviews the sources, the environmental distribution, the generation mechanism, some analytical problems and the emission control of PCDDs from municipal solid waste incinerators based on the investigations and available literature data.

Key words: Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, incineration, municipal solid waste.