A major report on landfill and incinerators has indicated that there is an urgent need to develop information systems to measure the health and environmental impact of landfill dumps and incinerators.
The report also indicated that the evidence of a link between cancer and incinerators was inconclusive.
The 200-page report, which is a review of the existing scientific evidence carried out by a team from UCD, UCC and the Dublin Institute of Technology, was published by the health research board.
The report concluded that it is not possible at present to carry out adequate risk assessment because the personnel and dedicated resources are not available.
Furthermore it suggested that Irish health information systems are not sufficiently developed to support routine monitoring of the health of people living near waste sites.
The study said that in particular Irish facilities for measuring dioxins should be developed as a priority.
The report said that evidence of a causal relationship between health effects and landfill sites was still inconclusive, and that there was insufficient evidence for an association between birth defects and living near some landfill sites.
However the report did suggest that there was some evidence that incinerator omissions may be associated with respiratory symptoms, but that the evidence of a link between cancer and incinerators was not conclusive.
