Air Pollution Question

[cbish]

Air pollution question from northern Calif. not southern Calif.

On January 1st, our region is putting a ban on burn barrels and the burning of household trash. This has sparked debate.

First, no one disputes the burning of trash per se. Everyone agrees you shouldn't be burning plastics and petro-chemicals etc. But the ban includes yard waste, paper products and cardboard. My question is, what's the environmental problem with that? (paper & cardboard).

One article said that burning trash emits "Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon's (PAH's), PCB's, Benzene, 1,3 Butadiene". I'm sure it does....if you're burning a tire! Are these products found in a kleenex, paper towel, binder paper, paper bag, paper plate (the cheap ones), a piece of corralated cardboard? I have the understanding that certain inks & dyes of food packaging, i.e. cereal boxes, frozen pizza boxes etc. have mettalic substances that give them their color. Incomplete combustion from a fireplace or a backyard incinerator can cause these to become particulate matter in the air.

My second question is scope. Does burning a couple of cereal boxes once a week for half the year cause a problem? I went to a state site and they didn't seem interested in talking to you unless you were burning 70+ tons a year.

 

[fishbob]

PAHs have been found as combustion products of peat fires, forest fires, and garbage fires.

Does burning a couple of cereal boxes once a week for half the year cause a problem?

If one person does it - no problem. If a million people do it, yes there is a problem.

Somebody has to decide where in between to draw the line.

 

[BTox]

Air pollution question from northern Calif. not southern Calif.

On January 1st, our region is putting a ban on burn barrels and the burning of household trash. This has sparked debate.

Just banning burning trash now? Wow, I remember burning trash in the backyard in a barrel when I was a kid in Pennsylvania but am pretty sured that practice there, and here in NJ, has been banned for decades.

And yes, burning household trash generates all manner of nasty chemicals. Much of what you describe has plastic coatings, adhesives and such.

 

[cbish]

fishbob wrote:

PAHs have been found as combustion products of peat fires, forest fires, and garbage fires.

As quoted, that seems like a natural occuring phenomena. So is it a by-product of organic combustion? Show me the formula? Are they a pollutant? Are they carcinogenic? In what concentration? Over what periods of time?


fishbob also wrote:

f one person does it - no problem. If a million people do it, yes there is a problem.

Agreed! That's why I bring up "scope". If a million do it...problem. If 1000 people do it in 20,000 sq. miles once a week over a sixth month period in winter with, say 50+ inches of precipitation events (+ wind. Is it a problem?

 

[cbish]

BTox wrote:

burning household trash generates all manner of nasty chemicals. Much of what you
describe has plastic coatings, adhesives and such.

I'm not disputing that!

What I want to know about is paper products like newspaper, grocery bags, tissue, paper towels, coralated cardboard.

I happen to speak, today, with a man who has his M.S. in chemistry and has been on our fire board for the past 15 years. He said nonpainted, fibrous paper prouducts are fine. The reason why the air quality board passed this resolution was that they were tired of fighting all the people that burned all their junk and they just passed a blind, all inclusive resolution.