The Baldovie incinerator in Dundee has been given a clean bill of health by NHS Tayside.
The health board has found no evidence of any increase in deaths from heart disease, cancer or an increase in infant mortality over the past 10 years in areas around the Dundee Energy Recycling Ltd waste-to-energy plant.
The statistics were revealed by NHS Tayside following a report which claims that families living downwind of incinerators are more at risk from infant death, heart disease, cancer and autism.
The report was based on Office of National Statistics data using the South East London Combined Heat and Power Plant in Deptford as an example.
However the most recent figures revealed by Dr Jackie Hyland, consultant in public health medicine with NHS Tayside’s health protection team, show there is no evidence to suggest any similar increased risk at the plant.
A spokesman for the health board said: “NHS Tayside has reviewed the health data for the area around Baldovie incinerator and has found no evidence of an increase in deaths from heart disease, cancer or an increase in infant mortality. Data on autism is not routinely collected.
“NHS Tayside has been advised that SEPA, as the regulators, are monitoring the situation at Baldovie. Health risks associated with incinerators continues to be reviewed at a national level.”
Dr Hyland confirmed the data researched covers the period from 2003 to 2012.
A spokesman for DERL said the company welcomed NHS Tayside’s data review.
The spokesman said: “We take our health and safety and environmental performance very seriously and we welcome the reassurance from NHS Tayside that there has been no evidence of any increase in the Baldovie area of the adverse health outcomes which they examined in their data review.
“The DERL energy-from-waste plant operates to stringent environmental standards as required by EU legislation and we are regulated and monitored by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
“We’d add that SEPA monitors DERL as a matter of routine and is not monitoring a particular situation in this regard.”
Waste is strictly defined and regulated under UK and Scottish legislation, based on European Union Directives. SEPA is responsible in Scotland for oversight of waste regulation and enforcement.
SEPA defines waste in terms of: hazardous, municipal, clinical and commercial/industrial. Local Authorities in Scotland are responsible for the collection and disposal of some wastes in accordance with regulations.
Most waste collected by local authorities arises from domestic households (81% of total waste collected by local authorities in 2005/06).
The vast majority of this waste currently goes to landfill (97% in 2005/06) with a comparatively small proportion going for incineration (3%), with or without energy recovery.
Government policy is to reduce the current reliance on landfill, for biodegradable municipal waste in particular, to 35% of current levels by 2020.
An increase in the amount of waste destined for incineration is therefore probable. The Scottish Government has, however, limited the proportion of municipal waste destined for energy recovery incineration to no more than 25% of the total waste arisings by 2025.
DERL, which collects the city’s waste and burns it to produce electricity for the National Grid, has had a chequered history.
A major fire in 2012 stopped production for more than a year and 20 jobs were shed in a cost-cutting measure.
The company, which has run up losses of about £50 million, then appealed for £30m for a major upgrade to secure its future for the next 20 years.
The council, which hopes to sell the plant to a new owner, has lent it millions of pounds in the last decade recently almost £8m for improvements to both boilers.
The council say continuing to support the venture was expensive but was deemed the only viable option, compared to paying heavy financial penalties that come with burying waste as landfill.