Characterization by both analytical and genotoxicological approaches, of the gas effluents and clinkers produced by a specific incinerator for infectious wastes during the incineration of cytostatic drugs

Abstract : The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the incineration of cytostatic drugs and their wastes at a temperature between 1000 and 1200 degrees C. Scientific basis for this recommendation is not clearly established and seem to be due to the extrapolation from a limited set of experimental data. During previous studies, we have demonstrated that the destruction in a municipal solid waste incinerators (MSWI) of wastes containing small quantities of cytostatic drugs does not modified both effluent gases and clinkers produced. In the present study, we analysed both effluent gases and clinkers produced by a specific incinerator for infectious wastes over a 2 days period. During the first day, we did not introduce in the incinerator wastes known to contain cytostatic drugs. During the second day, we introduced 2800 kg of wastes containing residues of these drugs and 2880 kg of medicine wastes of 5-fluorouracile. For each day, we characterised and quantified the nature of effluents compared to the rate of destruction of active principles and the formation of degradation compounds. Analysis were performed by either analytical and genotoxicological methods. The results have shown that there is no significant difference between the samples of these 2 days regarding the generation of specific chemicals or the genotoxical effects on bacteria or in vitro cells. It demonstrates that the destruction in a specific incinerator for infectious wastes of wastes containing cytostatic drugs does not seem to be likely to increase the risk for workers or population living in the neighbourhood of this incinerator. This work was supported by the French environment and energy management agency (ADEME).