yikes

Dioxins – 3rd strongest poison known to man according to memoirs of a vagabond

vnounku is also extremely concerned about the cancerous side effects of dioxins and offers dome useful tips on how to reduce the amount leaching into your food. His source? I quote
“Recently, Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital, was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us.”

For more go to link

 

Dioxins & why you dont want to be burning plastic

Can you burn plastic? Well it never burns easily – it melts and bubbles.  It will burn eventually but you have to keep heating it – click here if you want to know why.

But if you do try to set fire to plastic it gives off a terrible smell at least in my experiance — as a child playing round the back of the derelict garages I hasten to add.

But is it bad for you?

The smell according to the naked scientist could be anything

“There are lots of different plastics, and they will give off lots of different vapours when they decompose.

It could be just a simple hydrocarbon, or it could contain cyanides, or PCB’s, or lots of other substances.  Without knowing what the plastic was (including what additives might have been incorporated), it would be difficult to know what are the likely volatiles it would create…. volatiles given off from plastics in house fires are a major cause of death.

http://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/?topic=7883

The everyman opinion varies dramatically see the guardian debate

So the answer is a tricky one – aren’t they all. It really depends what plastic you are talking about

Apparently, its ok to burn polythene. In fact it is so cloesly related to oil and if reprocessed as briquettes can make a very efficient fuel and there are plans afoot to use it as such in India. For more details go to ifenergy.

Personally I wont be trying this at home because other kinds of plastic are not so easily burnt.  Halogenated plastics, those that are made from chlorine or fluorine are problomatic.

According to Wikipedia

Halogenated plastics include:
Chlorine based plastics:
Chlorinated polyethylene (CPE)
Chlorinated polyvinyl chloride (CPVC)
Chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CSPE)
Polychloroprene (CR or chloroprene rubber, marketed under the brand name of Neoprene)
PVC
Fluorine based plastics:
Fluorinated ethylene propylene (FEP)

Dioxins are unintentionally, but unavoidably produced during the manufacture of materials containing chlorine, including PVC and other chlorinated plastic feedstocks.

Burning these plastics can release dioxins.

Dioxin is a known human carcinogen and the most potent synthetic carcinogen ever tested in laboratory animals. A characterization by the National Institute of Standards and Technology of cancer causing potential evaluated dioxin as over 10,000 times more potent than the next highest chemical (diethanol amine), half a million times more than arsenic and a million or more times greater than all others.

IN CONCLUSION I WONT BE BURNING PLASTIC ON MY BONFIRE

But is it safe to burn in waste disposal units? Incinerators I mean?

Well the debate rages – the following posts illustrate the differences in opinion.

http://wasteplastictechnology.blogspot.com/2005/09/myth-on-burning-plastics.html

http://lists.essential.org/1998/dioxin-l/msg00751.html

Dioxins a little bit more

The green guide have this to say about dioxins

Dioxins, which are highly toxic even at low doses, are produced when plastics are manufactured and incinerated. While dioxin levels in the U.S. environment have been declining for the last 30 years, they break down so slowly that some of the dioxins from past releases will still be in the environment many years hence.

In its 2000 final draft reassessment of the health effects of dioxins, the EPA concluded that dioxins have the potential to produce an array of adverse health effects in humans. The agency’s report estimated that the average American’s risk of contracting cancer from dioxin exposure may be as high as one in 1,000–1,000 times higher than the government’s current “acceptable” standard of one in a million.

Dioxins are also endocrine disruptors, substances that can interfere with the body’s natural hormone signals. Dioxin exposure, moreover, can damage the immune system and may affect reproduction and childhood development.

The most common health effect in people exposed to large amounts of dioxin is chloracne, a severe skin disease with acne-like lesions that occur mainly on the face and upper body. Other effects of exposure to large amounts of dioxin include skin rashes, skin discoloration, excessive body hair, and possibly mild liver damage.

Dioxins

Dioxins are unintentionally, but unavoidably produced during the manufacture of materials containing chlorine, including PVC and other chlorinated plastic feedstocks.

Burning these plastics can release dioxins.

Dioxin is a known human carcinogen and the most potent synthetic carcinogen ever tested in laboratory animals. A characterization by the National Institute of Standards and Technology of cancer causing potential evaluated dioxin as over 10,000 times more potent than the next highest chemical (diethanol amine), half a million times more than arsenic and a million or more times greater than all others.