To evaluate the health impact for population living in the vicinity of a municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI), we conducted a retrospective ecological study on the cancer incidence around sixteen MSWIs in France. The general cancer registries of the study zone provided the morbidity data. The modelled dioxin (2,3,7,8 TCDD) ground-level dispersion was used as marker of a global exposure to MSWI. The home address at the time of diagnosis was used to locate each case of cancer. Urbanization, socio-economic deprivation, exposure to air pollution from traffic and from other industries were took into account as potential confounding factors. All collected data were implemented in a geographical information system in order to estimate, at the IRIS level, cancer incidences, exposure to MSWI emissions and to confounding factors. Through a log-linear Poisson regression associated with a Bayesian hierarchical analysis, we analyzed the relationship between exposure to MSWI emissions and cancer incidences. The analysis of our data shows a positive association between exposure to incinerators in the 70s' and 80s' and the incidence of different cancers during the period 1990-1999. However, this ecological study does not allow to establish any causal relationship; it only provides further arguments in favor of this link. (R.A.)