Hello:
I've been following the discussions on the tire burner with interest.
As you might imagine, many people in our region have been informing themselves
about this issue. One is a medical doctor from Preston, Dr. Sauer(who, by
the way, will be speaking at Winona Earth Day on April 23rd). Sauer's
interest is in the potential health impacts of a tire burning plant. When
I asked him to explain the need for the EIS, he responded as follows:
"Since matter can neither be created or destroyed those emissions that
are trapped in the pollution control devices and the ash must be handled as
well. If we don't put the arsenic, hexavalent chromium, lead, mercury,
dioxins,furans, and PCBs' into the air then they are in the ash...You must also
remember combustion changes the material combusted and municipal waste
incineration and tire incineration takes relatively benign material and changes
it into toxic material such as PCBs' and Dioxins when none existed in the fuel
to start with. " In other words, the tire burner
poses environmental questions beyond the potential air pollution, including
disposal of the ash. Sauer also provided links to web sites that offer
more perspectives on the tire burner:
You can access SEMEP and CAP web sites at:
If you want peer reviewed literature from relatively
unbiased areas here are a few more links.
Look up EPA 600/R-97-115 Air Emissions from Scrap Tire
Combustion
Some of our WOD readers may be interested in the health issues associated
with decisions we make about the environment. If so, they are cordially
invited to attend the next community dialogue of Sustain Winona on Tuesday,
March 15th, 7pm at the County Board room. Our featured speaker via video
from the National Bioneers Conference is Michael Lerner, president and founder of
Commonweal, a health and environmental research institute in Bolinas,
California. Lerner says: "There is growing evidence that there
are over 100 diseases and conditions of our time in which chemical exposures
either do or may well play a contributing role. The list includes asthma,
allergies, autism, many cancers, learning disabilities, endometriosis,
infertility, Parkinson�s disease, and much more. Scientists are beginning to
understand that all human beings on Earth carry hundreds of persistent
bioaccumulative toxins in their bodies (chemicals that stay in our bodies over
time), some at levels that are associated in animal studies with diseases
similar to those that are endemic in the human population. Similarly, scientists
have begun to establish that low levels of these chemicals in our bodies, once
thought to be safe, can have significant health effects."
(excerpted from http://www.yesmagazine.com/article.asp?ID=585)
If anyone would like a copy of the flyer for the event, or more
information, please let me know.
Martha Greenwald
|
