2008 Volume 45 Pages 259-270
This study measured hazardous materials, including dioxins, mercury, and hexavalent chromium compounds, in the flue gases, fly ash, and bottom ash from four crematoriums in Japan, to evaluate the emissions from crematoriums.
The toxic equivalent concentration (normalized by 12% O2) of dioxins in the flue gases from crematoriums ranged from 0.00012 to 1.2ng-TEQ/m3N. The estimated maximum emission inventory of dioxins from crematoriums was 1.1 g-TEQ/year, which is less than one-filih ofthe present emission inventoiy. Although mercury in flue gases from crematoriums was under the minimum limit of determination using the JIS K0222 method, Hg0 from dental amalgam contributed significantly to the total mercury emissions from crematoriums based on a continuous mercury speciation analyzer, as in our past study. The hexavalent chromium compounds leached from all ash samples exceeded the Japanese environmental quality standards for soil by 180 to 1, 200 times. Therefore, countermeasures against hexavalent chromium compounds in the ash from crematoriums are required.