Indian advocates for the environment and public health ask Global Response members to persuade the Bank to stop funding incinerators and to install safe waste disposal technologies instead. To protect them and others who might easily find and reuse contaminated needles and other medical supplies, a safe system of disposing of medical waste is urgently needed. But the incinerators that the World Bank plan to construct will create MORE toxic pollution. In India, a coalition of environmentalists and public health advocates, the Indian Campaign Against Medical Waste Incineration, is demanding that the World Bank implement these safe technologies instead of building harmful incinerators. Tawhid Nawaz, task manager for the Bank's project, agreed to look into their criticisms of incineration and the advantages of alternative technologies.
Dioxins are potent cancer-causing agents.
A September 1994 report by the United States Environmental Protection Agency documents the connection between dioxin exposure and cancer, birth defects, endometriosis, reduced sperm count and decreased testes size. Dioxin exposure also damages the immune system, leading to increased susceptibility to infectious disease. Dioxins, furans and phthalates are endocrine-disrupting chemicals. This loss of potential in humans and wildlife is expressed in both behavioral and physical abnormalities. Widespread loss of this potential in nature can change the character of human societies or destabilize wildlife populations.