The Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board is vexed over the rampant burning of household trash in personal backyards in complete violation of instructions from the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation.
Pollution control experts say that when household garbage is burnt, Dioxins, a known carcinogen, associated also with birth defects, are released into the air we inhale. Dioxins are impossible to be removed from the food chain since these are Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxins (PBTs) which enter plants through air and water, then cattle and poultry, and finally, humans.
“Backyard burning practices are responsible for the emission of Hazardous Air Pollutants (HAPs) and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) and also the particulate matter affecting our respiratory systems,” said W.G. Prasanna Kumar, director, National Green Corps, and a social scientist with the PCB.
“Typical domestic trash — and this would include leaves, plastic, food left overs, paper, cardboard, coated paper, toxic e-waste and other stuff manufactured by humans and often containing heavy elements and composites not meant to be burnt or incinerated — is meant for being sent to a landfill, or recycled.” Plastic and e-waste are also not to be incinerated, as per the APPCB’s e-waste management rules.
When leaves are burnt, the ground-level formation of ozone and the VOCs released cause respiratory problems.
When paints, fibreglass insulations and wood products are burnt, formaldehyde and hexacholorobenzene (HCB), probably carcinogens, are released.
The resultant ash often contains heavy metals (found in printed material) which causes groundwater or surface water contamination, entering the food chain when absorbed by plants.
The heavy metals entering the ecosystem in this way include cadmium (which can lead to lung and kidney damage), arsenic and chromium, which are carcinogenic, and mercury (which damages the nervous and excretory systems).
Complaints about GHMC employees too resorting to burning of household garbage have been made to the PCB. Prasanna said that the National Green Corps would take up the matter with the GHMC for strict implementation of the ban on backyard burning of household trash.