Approximately 11,000 people face risks to their health posed by legal waste dumps located in the vicinity of their dwellings, according to a study published by the Institute of Environmental Policy (IEP) on Tuesday. The analytical unit of the Environment Ministry claims that 111 legal dumps and almost 6,000 illegal dumps are in operation in Slovakia. Chemical processes in landfills often continue long after the closure of landfills and thus continue to negatively affect the environment. If not managed properly, the resulting harmful substances can contaminate the soil, groundwater and local air, which negatively affects human health. In the past, people living near landfills had an increased incidence of cancers, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases and various types of allergies. A study carried out in 2016 showed an increased incidence of respiratory diseases in people living within five kilometers from a landfill.
Landfilling is the most common method of waste management in Slovakia even if it is a decreasing trend. In the legal landfills there is a total volume of 1.2 million tonnes of waste per year. According to established standards, the landfill must not be located less than 500 meters from human dwellings and less than a thousand meters from school facilities. However, according to the Institute, 38 landfills do not meet the first criteria while 12 are located less than a thousand meters away from the nearest school facility. Analysts found even a medical facility located in a half-kilometer circuit from one of the landfills.
The worst legal landfill is the Košice-Myslava one, where, in addition to a large number of inhabitants living within five hundred meters, there are also six schools located within a thousand meters of the landfill. There are also six schools around the landfill in Podbrezová. More than two hundred people live in the 100-meter distance of the landfill in Čadca. Other problematics landfills are in Martin, Zemianske Kostoľany and Košice-Šaca.
