Consorci per al tractament de residus sòlids urbans del Maresme

Medical studies

THE CONSORTIUM HAS BEEN CARRYING OUT CONTINUOUS BIOLOGICAL MONITORING STUDIES SINCE 1995

In 1995 the Maresme Consortium for Municipal Solid Waste Treatment, in conjunction with Mataró Hospital, started a pioneering study to evaluate the possible effects on the population of Mataró of the Maresme Integral Centre for Waste Recovery becoming operational. Given the scientific interest in the study, there was an agreement to carry out time-based monitoring of the evolution of the different public health indicators considered in the study, structured in three phases during a period of approximately two years.

The study group is considered in all the phases to be a group which is exposed to the plant in Mataró (inhabitants who live between 500m and 1500m from the plant), a control group in Mataró (inhabitants who live between 3000m and 4000m from the plant), and a group of workers at the plant, adding at the third phase a control group of inhabitants from Arenys de Mar.

Since then, the studies have been carried out in different waves. Since 2006, and coinciding with the sixth phase, the study has been undertaken by the Health Foundation at the Maresme Health Consortium, which continues doing the work to this day. The eighth phase of the study began in 2014, and in December 2015 the results were presented, coinciding with the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the continuous monitoring.

Specifically, the study biologically monitors the levels of dioxins (PCDD), furans (PCDF), polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, As), and is run by a multidisciplinary medical team with doctors, analysts and nurses from the Investigation Unit at the Health Foundation, the dioxin laboratory of the CSIC and the National Centre for Working Conditions in Barcelona.

The medical studies carried out since 1995 continually show that the level of dioxins and furans in the blood samples and breast milk of the study groups are comparable, and/or are in the lower range in relation to those observed in other industrialized countries. Therefore, it is medically shown that exposure to the incineration plant is not a risk factor for having higher levels of the different analysed substances.

To download the conclusions of the latest wave of studies carried out by the Investigation Unit at the Maresme Health Consortium click on the following links: