Rise in PFAS Incineration Puts Spotlight on Air Pollution Risk

Less than a mile from one of the largest hazardous waste incinerators in the world, longtime activist Alonzo Spencer points to a wall of framed photos, recounting tales of his decades-long fight against a facility that researchers and local residents worry is spewing “forever chemicals” into the air.

In one photo, Spencer chats closely with actor Martin Sheen, who fought alongside Spencer in the 1990s against the construction of an incinerator by Heritage Thermal Services, known at the time as Waste Technologies Industries, or WTI. The incinerator sits less than three miles from downtown East Liverpool, Ohio, a small Appalachian ...