What are burn barrels and residential burning?
In many parts of North America, urban as well as rural, people burn their domestic garbage on their residential properties. In agricultural areas, feed bags and other commercial waste packaging are also burned. The garbage is commonly burned in a 55-gallon steel drum or “burn barrel”. Residential burning is also done in woodstoves, fireplaces, outdoor boilers, and open pits. Why is there a problem with the residential burning of garbage? The United States Environmental Protection Agency Dioxin Re-Assessment estimates that 19 percent of total quantifiable annual releases for 1995 of dioxins/furans are generated by residential burning of household garbage. For dioxin, the predominant pathway to most humans is air-to-leaf followed by bioconcentration in animal fat. Since of majority of dioxin intake to humans comes from food sources, then dioxin emissions from burn barrels impact a wide population when they land on feed crops and are concentrated in the bodies of farm animals. Emissions o
