Influence of Waste Incineration and Obtaining Energy from it to the Public Health for Certain Territories: A Bibliometric and Substantive Study

Abstract

About 40 years ago, plastic packaging was almost never used in Ukraine. Food products were sold in glass bottles, iron cans or in paper wrappers, which were decomposed in the environment or handed over to recycling centres. However, in recent years, the situation has fundamentally changed all over the world. Almost all products have several layers of packaging made of synthetic polymer materials. It has led to the significant growth of landfills and, therefore, to the emergence of a new problem – their proper maintenance. Landfills are areas of land where household, construction and other wastes are stored without control. To reduce the volume of waste, landfills are often set on fire. This approach is unacceptable, as landfills are a serious source of soil, air and water pollutions. Arbitrarily created waste disposal points are not equipped appropriately, the products of waste decay fall into the soil and groundwater, which is the source of water supply for a large number of the national population. The decay temperature in some cases is so high that it often leads to their ignition, and large amounts of harmful substances are released into the air. In this article, the authors conducted a study of the terminological orientation of scientific publications in the context of identifying the impact on human health of the waste conversion into energy compared to the impact of the landfill operation. Bibliographic information about scientific publications in peer-reviewed publications were preliminarily acquired from the Scopus database. The obtained results showed that researchers are investigating the impact of landfills on the population health, mainly focusing on such concepts as “health”, “landfills”, “waste incineration”. The authors analysed the dynamics of scientific interest levels in this topic and determined that the highest rate would be in 2022. It confirms the growing relevance of the researched problem in the modern world. All authors’ considerations are illustrated by corresponding diagrams and tables.