Incineration has been used widely for waste disposal, including household, hazardous, and medical wasteâ€"but there is increasing public concern over the benefits of combusting the waste versus the health risk from pollutants emitted during combustion. Waste Incineration and Public Health informs the emerging debate with the most up-to-date information available on incineration, pollution, and human healthâ€"along with expert conclusions and recommendations for further research and improvement of such areas as risk communication. The committee provides details on: Processes involved in incineration and how contaminants are released. Environmental dynamics of contaminants and routes of human exposure. Tools and approaches for assessing possible human health effects. Scientific concerns pertinent to future regulatory actions. The book also examines some of the social, psychological, and economic factors that affect the communities where incineration takes place and addresses the problem of uncertainty and variation in predicting the health effects of incineration processes.

Solid waste was already a problem long before water and air pollution issues attracted public attention. Historically the problem associated with solid waste can be dated back to prehistoric days. Due to the invention of new products, technologies and services the quantity and quality of the waste have changed over the years. Waste characteristics not only depend on income, culture and geography but also on a society's economy and, situations like disasters that affect that economy. There was tremendous industrial activity in Europe during the industrial revolution. The twentieth century is recognized as the American Century and the twenty-first century is recognized as the Asian Century in which everyone wants to earn ‘as much as possible’. After Asia the currently developing Africa could next take the center stage. With transitions in their economies many countries have also witnessed an explosion of waste quantities. Solid waste problems and approaches to tackling them vary from country to country. For example, while efforts are made to collect and dispose hospital waste through separate mechanisms in India it is burnt together with municipal solid waste in Sweden. While trans-boundary movement of waste has been addressed in numerous international agreements, it still reaches developing countries in many forms. While thousands of people depend on waste for their livelihood throughout the world, many others face problems due to poor waste management. In this context solid waste has not remained an issue to be tackled by the local urban bodies alone. It has become a subject of importance for engineers as well as doctors, psychologist, economists, and climate scientists and any others. There are huge changes in waste management in different parts of the world at different times in history. To address these issues, an effort has been made by the authors to combine their experience and bring together a new text book on the theory and practice of the subject covering the important relevant literature at the same time.

Environmental Pollution and Control, Third Edition focuses on the aspects of environmental engineering science and technology, including water pollution, wastewater, sludge treatment, and water pollution legislation. The book first elaborates on environmental and water pollution and measurement of water quality. Discussions focus on chemical oxygen demand, bacteriological measurements, heavy metals, effect of pollution on streams, lakes, and oceans, biodegradation, population responses, and exposure and latency. The publication also takes a look at water supply and water treatment, including disinfection, filtration, settling, coagulation and flocculation, water transmission, and groundwater and surface water supplies. The manuscript examines the collection and treatment of wastewater, sludge treatment and disposal, and nonpoint source water pollution. Topics include control technologies applicable to nonpoint source pollution, sources of sludge, ultimate disposal, onsite wastewater disposal, central wastewater treatment, and tertiary treatment. The text also elaborates on water pollution law, solid wastes, resource recovery, and hazardous wastes. The publication is a valuable reference for environmental pollution experts and readers interested in environmental pollution and control.