Killing me softly: neighbourhood solid waste open burning

Or not so softly. But the toxic gaseous pollutants emitted by your neighbourhood uncontrolled open burning household waste can figuratively kill you if you have underlying health problems. Children, the elderly, or people with pre-existing respiratory conditions can be especially vulnerable to some of the pollutants.

Open burning of household solid waste, some call it backyard burning, often done by residents on their own property in our neighbourhood, is not considered a complete burning, i.e. providing enough oxygen to be able to convert the trash to a complete combustion.

My 2-month old baby niece was rushed to the emergency room when her house was inundated by neighbourhood open burning smoke. Luckily she was treated immediately so didn’t end up like the case of a 1-month old baby in Malaysia who was exposed to cigarette smoke in a family gathering and end up with acute pneumonia that lead to the baby’s death two weeks later. We know that the chemical components in cigarette smoke are as deadly as the toxic chemicals emitted by an uncontrolled open burning, particularly for sensitive people. These two types of smoke contain, among thousands of others, PAH (polycyclic hydrocarbons) and CO (carbon monoxide). While cigarette smoke also contains phenols, aldehydes, benzene and some toxic metals such as Cadmium and Lead, that are carcinogenic, causing heart disease, COPD and emphysema, the uncontrolled open burning might contain dioxin, furans, PM (particulate matter), VOC (volatile organic compounds) and noxious gases such as Nitrogen oxides and Sulphuric Oxides. These toxic compounds can lead to impairment of the immune systems, the endocrine system and reproductive functions.

A UNICEF report stated that air pollution, linked with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, as well as mental, behavioural, neurological disorders and cognitive functions, is deemed as the biggest killers of children. Toxic substances in air pollution also caused impairment on blood-brain barrier system in older people that leads to Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases. A 2019 research also confirmed previous studies that neurotoxicity due to air pollution occurs since pre-natal exposures. When it is continued until the post-natal stages the report concluded that air pollution plays a major role in brain functions.

The regulations forbidding the uncontrolled open burning are available, penalties applied. But the backyard burning remains. And so the acts of destroying the health of us, the unwilling victims of the absolutely preventable air pollution.

An influential environmental activist Wendell Berry said that he is ‘a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children’. This statement is now loosely used by many as: ” … We have not inherited the land from our fathers, we have borrowed it from our children …”. But how can we keep our children well if we expose them with pollutants that impair their cognitive abilities, reduce their overall health and life quality? It is up to us to act, now, as parents, as community, for the future of humanity.