Farm Horizons
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June 6, 2016
They are cleaning out their barns and garages and
basements, and making bonfires of abandoned belongings. They are stacking up pallets way out back, setting
them ablaze, and tossing an old couch on top – after
midnight.
Sometimes, a landowner demolishes an entire house
or building, burns the debris in a pit, and then buries the
ashes.
The toxins produced by these burns add up to a major
source of pollution.
“The open burning of household waste here in Minnesota contributes to 50 percent of the known dioxins
generated in the state,” explained Henry Fisher, MPCA
coordinator for illegal burning abatement. Nationally,
garbage-burning is the largest source of human-caused
dioxin emissions, according to the US Environmental
Protection Agency.
Dioxins occur naturally, but in much smaller and
more dispersed amounts than those released when people burn plastics or chlorinated compounds.
Dioxins are ubiquitous in the modern waste stream
because plastics and chlorine are ubiquitous in modern
consumer products and packaging.
Even a sheet of lily-white paper emits dioxins when
burned.
“Chlorine is used to essentially bleach paper,” stated
Fisher. “It’s used to clean just about everything that we
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put out for consumption.”
Dioxins released by the low-burning temperature of a
garbage fire become airborne and land on land or water.
They persist in the environment and bioaccumulate, ascending the food chain as they enter the bodies of successively larger animals.
Human beings take in dioxins when eating fish, meat,
and dairy products derived from creatures that have
been exposed to the chemicals.
Dioxins, in addition to being carcinogenic, belong to
the class of chemicals known as endocrine disruptors,
which can harm human health in very small concentrations.
“Studies have shown that it also affects the reproductive aspects of fish and birds and mammals,” stated
Fisher. “Those dioxins don’t have to fall far from burn
barrels that are out in the backyard, next to the lakeshore,
to have an impact on the whole food chain.”
Trash burning can emit many other toxic compounds.
Benzene, linked to leukemia, is in polystyrene-foam
products such as coffee cups and packing foam.
Formaldehyde is a carcinogen that can also irritate
skin, eyes, nose, and throat. It is in pressed-board products, such as plywood, particleboard, and fiberboard, often used in household furniture.
Plastics and dyes may contain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – also carcinogenic.
Many other toxins join the mix if the burner tosses
things like batteries, electronics, paints, or herbicides
onto the pyre.
Virtually any fire produces fine particulates that can
enter lungs. If anyone is under the illusion that their trash
fire is harmless, they are almost certainly wrong.
As one awareness-raising MPCA campaign states, “If
you’re burning garbage, you’re making poison.”
Know the laws
It’s pretty cut-and-dried what can and cannot be legally burned in Minnesota.
A wood-fueled campfire is OK – provided it’s in a
ring no more than 3 feet in diameter, the flames reach
no higher than 3 feet, and a 5-foot area around the fire is
cleared of combustible material.
The only type of household waste that’s legal to burn
is clean, unpainted, untreated wood scraps. If an area
has a temporary burn ban because of dangerously dry
conditions, no fires are allowed.
It’s also legal to burn brush, such as dry leaves, plant
clippings, and other yard waste if you obtain a permit
to use either an open fire or a burn barrel constructed to
legal specifications. (Local fire wardens and the DNR
issue $5 annual permits. A permit isn’t needed for any
open fire if at least 3 inches of snow cover the ground,
or if you’re using a legal burn barrel between 6 p.m. and
8 a.m.)
In his 27 years as a conservation officer, Kuske has