On 16 Jul 2004 00:42:27 GMT, Ignoramus23926
wrote:

Turns out that burning trash is illegal in my state, for good
environmental reasons. It makes dioxin and whatnot.

i

Chuckle, true enough. I've read the studies.

Of course the newspapers, enviornmental groups, and so forth get wild
about reporting and discussing it, as if it were nearly the end of the
world that people are allowed to burn trash. And that trash burning
by private individuals is the new "greatest threat" to the
enviornment.

And of course, city council members, county and state government
officials hop on the hype and hyperbole with gusto, but not too much
in the way of cogent thought, knowledge, or understanding of the
chemistry. And print new fliers and posters, and pass new laws
prohibiting trash burning. Make press announcements about their new
laws, pat each other on the back and tell each other, "Ohhh, we're so
wonderful. Aren't we?" Etc.

ROFL ......

If yah actually read the relative studies and evidence. The actual
study results, not the news reporter hype material. And the
discussion about the issue done by -chemists-, not the discussions
done by what are too often the science illiterate enviornmental whacko
groups. You'll note that the main problem is that some folks do not
know better, and burn various plastics and other man-made artifical
materials (nylon, naugahide, so on and so forth) in their burn
barrels.

This is a no-no, or should be.

If you did not know, a lot of the man-made materials commonly found in
homes, release some nasty stuff when burned. Particularly materials
made of PVC.

Tho other commonly found materials, such as shrink wrap, plastic milk
cartons, other plastic containers, plastic bags, styrofoam, "foam
rubber", and so forth are also a problem. As concerns producing
dioxins when burned incompletely at the lower temps commonly found in
burn barrels. But PVC is THE biggy as a producer of dioxins when
burned improperly.

There are some other sources of chlorine in household trash. Common
table salt that'd been put on food, bleached paper, etc. But these
are so negligiable in effect that they can be effectively dismissed as
a concern.

Around here, the solution was that locally folks were informed as to
what NOT to burn in their burn barrels. And so were the county
sheriff's deputies. The deputies don't check everyone making a burn.
But do make spot checks as they have time, or if they see a lot of
black smoke. Make sure you've taken the proper safety precautions,
and that you're not burning stuff yah shouldn't.

So, locally, not a big issue. Especially as I live in a low
population density area. Rural. Tho, the deputies I mentioned WILL
ticket your ass if they catch yah burning stuff you shouldn't. Which
is reasonable, IMHO. As mentioned, they don't try to stop at every
burn, but do make routine checks. I've had one of the local guys stop
a couple times, just to take a look. Which I have no problem with.
This is why we pay taxes, and hire deputies, right? So we have
somebody who'll be out there checking to ensure folks aren't doing
stuff which is unsafe or illegal, etc.

I know some folks on this misc.survivalism have a dislike and distrust
for "cops" in general. Shrug Maybe with reason. In a lifetime,
I've run across what I thought was a bad cop, from time to time.

However, I think most of em are good, decent folks trying to do a good
job.

Bob