Should We Recycle?

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Landfills are politically unpopular because many citizens fear the public health risks. But estimates of landfill risks—based on EPA assumptions that “maximally exposed” individuals face a cancer risk of one in a million—reveal that the risks to public health are not significant. When compared with most other forms of business and activities that we experience in daily living, the risks posed by landfills to the surrounding communities are miniscule.

For example, a study conducted by Jennifer and Kenneth Clinton demonstrates the very low level risk possed by landfills. Using EPA techinques for estimating risk they found that 60 percent of landfills pose a one in 10 billion risk; 6 percent pose a 1-in a billion risk; and 17 percent pose 1-in-a million risk. Modern landfills pose lowest of these risks. As a point of comparssion, the following activities post a one in a million cancer risk: smoking 1.4 cigarettes; drinking half liter of wine; living two days in New York or Boston; traveling 6 minutes by canoe; traveling 10 miles by bicycle; traveling 300 miles by car; flying 1,000 miles by jet one chest x-ray; eating 40 tablespoons of peanut butter.