Convenient substitute indices to toxic equivalent quantity for controlling and monitoring dioxins in stack gas from waste incineration facilities

It is necessary to develop technical systems for controlling and monitoring dioxins in stack gas from waste incineration facilities. However, it required much labor, high technical skill and extreme cost to measure dioxins for obtaining the toxic equivalent quantity (TEQ) values. In this study, the positive correlations of the WHO-TEQ values of PCDDs/PCDFs/Co-PCBs or PCDDs/PCDFs with the conventional I-TEQ values of PCDDs/PCDFs were confirmed beforehand for a large number of incineration facilities in a wide concentration range of a hundred thousand times. The relationships between the TEQ values and the concentrations of total PCDDs/PCDFs, each toxic isomer of PCDDs/PCDFs, total Cl(4-6)BZs, or each homologue of Cl(4-6)BZs were investigated for various incineration facilities. And it was found that positive correlations of the TEQ values with the concentrations of total PCDDs/PCDFs, 2,3,4,7,8-P5CDF, or Cl(5)BZ for a large number of different incineration facilities and in a wide concentration range. Consequently, the concentrations of total PCDDs/PCDFs, 2,3,4,7,8-P5CDF and Cl(5)BZ, whose measuring methods are much easier than that of obtaining the TEQ values, could be used as convenient substitute indices to the TEQ values for controlling and monitoring dioxins in stack gas from various waste incineration facilities. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.