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| Health
and Environmental Concerns Related to Illegal
Burning |
The
practice of burning the family's garbage
has been a tradition for generations of
Minnesotans. Until a few decades ago, the
practice was much less dangerous to your
health, since most household garbage contained
primarily paper, wood, and glass. However,
modern garbage is a mix of plastics and
other synthetics that release a hazardous
mixture of carcinogens and other toxins
when burned. Even seemingly harmless items,
like white office paper and the lightweight-paperboard
boxes, used for pop and frozen pizzas, can
give off toxic emissions that can cause
serious environmental and health problems.
Burn
barrel fire temperatures rarely exceed 500°F,
far below the level for complete combustion
and lack filtration entirely, because of
this they emit a much larger quantity of
toxins and ash. For each pound of garbage
burned in a burn barrel, twice as many furans,
seventeen times as much dioxin, and forty
times as much ash is given off compared
to the emissions from the same pound of
garbage burned in a resource recovery facility.
What
kind of pollution comes from illegal burning
of garbage? Besides ash (particulate), furans,
dioxins, and other halogenated hydrocarbons;
burn barrels give off high levels of carbon
monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide,
and heavy metals such as lead, arsenic,
mercury, barium,
chromium, and cadmium. Together, these chemicals
can cause a wide variety of health problems,
from mild irritation to chronic and deadly
diseases. Most of these pollutants need
not to be directly inhaled from the smoke
of burning garbage to be harmful; some of
these toxins remain in the immediate vicinity
and the area downwind of the burn barrel
for decades. Other toxins in the ash and
emissions gradually work their way into
our ground water. This accumulation exposes
you, your family, property and even future
generations living on the same land to ever-increasing
levels of hazardous substances.
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Information
on Pollution: Dioxins |
Dioxin
is one of the many pollutants given off from
illegal burning. Dioxin is a catchall term
for three chemical groups: true dioxins, furans
and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The
most dangerous form of dioxin, 2,3,7,8 -tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxcin
(or its abbreviation, 2378 - TCDD), has been
called "the most lethal human-made poison."
Its toxicity is second only to radioactive
waste; just three ounces would be enough to
kill one million people. Even at levels less
than one part per billion, it can cause serious
health impairments. It was once used in Agent
Orange, the Vietnam-era herbicide that continues
to cause health problems for many American
veterans exposed over thirty years ago. Dioxin
contamination at Love Canal (Niagara Falls,
NY) forced hundreds of families to abandon
their homes.
Given
off in large quantities by burning plastics
and paper, dioxin accumulates in the soil
in areas surrounding burn barrels. Ground-level
concentrations of dioxin resulting from burning
household garbage in a burn barrel are 7,000
times more then the amount formed when garbage
is burned in a resource
recovery facility. Slow to break down,
dioxins linger for centuries in the affected
area and are absorbed into plants that grow
in the contaminated soil. Animals that eat
these plants absorb the dioxin, and ultimately
dioxin makes its way to humans who eat the
animals or crops grown in this soil. Dioxin
does not break down or pass out of our bodies;
it accumulates in our fat cells.
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Information on Pollution: Heavy Metals |
Heavy
metals such as lead, mercury,
arsenic, barium, chromium and cadmium move
through the soil into the ground water and
cause a host of serious health problems when
taken internally. Lead accumulates in blood,
bones, and soft body tissues, where it affects
the kidneys, central nervous system, and all
blood-forming organs. It eventually causes
brain damage, mental retardation, seizures,
and behavioral disorders. Cadmium, used in
metal plating and in batteries, can cause
kidney and bone-marrow diseases and emphysema.
Mercury can be absorbed
through the lungs; mouth or skin as well as
from eating mercury contaminated fish. It
affects the brain, spinal cord, kidneys and
liver; the nervous system and one's ability
to feel, taste and move.
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Information on Pollution: Ash and Other Particulate |
Ash
and other particulate matter can irritate the
eyes and throat, damage the lungs, cause bronchitis,
emphysema, lung cancer, and restrict visibility.
It can seriously affect people with asthma or
certain allergies. Burn barrel ash laden with
heavy metals is particularly toxic, and often
seeps into ground water.
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©Copyright 2001- County of Otter Tail, Minnesota. U.S.A.
All Rights Reserved.
This web site is maintained by the Otter
Tail County GIS Office.
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