According to an analysis of recorded content at illegal dumping sites, no actually cases of fly-tipping in the UK have posed a direct link to human life.
However, researchers say the risk is “very genuine”.
An extreme example can be found in the Italian province of Campania, home of Europe’s largest illegal waste dump.
The area – known as the Triangle of Death – has an unusually high cancer rate, directly linked to about unauthorised or uncontrolled landfill sites used by the mafia and other organised crime gangs
Research by the World Health Organisation found abnormally high cases of diseases such as liver and bladder cancer in areas where there were uncontrolled waste sites.
Zero Waste Scotland said that fly-tipping continues to pose a risk to wildlife.
