NYS DEC Proposes to Ban Open Burning/Cancer Action NY Guides Activists in Creation of Environmental Health Education Campaigns

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) has made know to the public its intention of enacting a regulation that would prohibit open waste burning statewide.  Establishing such a ban would be an act of good government. 

It is highly likely that enforcement of the new regulation will be complaint driven.  If citizens are hesitant to make complaints against violators, the progress toward elimination of open burning will be very slow.  A more vigorous enforcement strategy would utilize patrolling environmental conservation officers giving warnings and subsequently issuing tickets.  Only strong public support for the ban will bring about such enforcement efforts. 

The failure of the New York State Legislature to pass a law banning open burning makes it clear that no great amount of public support exists.  Most New York State residents are unaware of the open burning problem.  Public education on the adverse health effects of open burning can build the large numbers of ban supporters necessary to obtain the aggressive enforcement activity that will succeed in rapidly eliminating this heavily polluting waste disposal practice.

Cancer Action NY is working to create a grassroots environmental health education campaign here in one of New York State’s largest milk production areas.  We are creating additional campaigns in urban areas to educate consumers.  Grassroots environmental health education is based upon the tenet that communities can educate themselves when various parts of the community, including:  students, local artists, civic organizations, environmental groups and the news media work together to provide information to the public in unique and inspiring ways.   Our message is that dioxins cause cancer, dioxins are air pollution contaminants of animal fat foods, open waste burning is the largest source of dioxin releases to the environment, and bringing an end to open burning is a matter of cancer risk reduction.  We need powerful artwork to use for making posters.  Share your artwork to help reduce the amount of dioxins in foods thereby protecting the public health.  Contact us at canceractionny@yahoo.com

Diligent enforcement of an open waste burning ban in combination with environmental health education on dioxin pollution will end open burning.  Working together good government and enlightened communities can protect the Earth resulting in healthier lives for all of us.

DIOXIN EXPOSURE CANCER RISK AS A MATTER FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION

Cancer  Action NY, 1/29/05

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has been in the process of conducting a reassessment of the health damaging effects of dioxin exposure for the past decade.  In 2000, the agency published a draft risk characterization that attributed a 1 in 1000 upper-bound excess cancer risk to average background levels of dioxin exposure.

Several federal government agencies, including:  the US Department of Agriculture, the US Food and Drug Administration, the US Department of Health and Human Services, and the EPA, are represented on the Interagency Working Group on Dioxin.  These parties have developed a paper entitled “Questions and Answers About Dioxins” that provides basic information for the public on the matter of exposure and adverse health effects.

The Institute of Medicine (IoM) published, “Dioxins and Dioxin-Like Compounds in the Food Supply:  Strategies to Decrease Exposure”, in 2003.  The critical message of this report is that current levels of dioxins and dioxin-like compounds (DLC) in animal fat foods impose a significant health risk upon the general public.  Cancer and endocrine disruption disorders are dioxin-associated diseases of especial concern.  Policy recommendations are made in Chapter 7 of the IoM document.  The two “most promising leverage points for affecting DLC exposure from food” are:  (1) the animal production stage where DLC enter the food supply through forage crops and feeds and are subsequently recycled back through the system by practices such as the reuse of animal fats as ingredients in animal feeds; and (2) food consumption patterns, where consumption of foods with higher levels of animal fat, particularly by children, contributes to DLC exposure and life-long DLC body burdens.  With regard to the first leverage point, it is recommended that no more animal fat be utilized as an ingredient in the feeds of animals used for food production.  As an intervention on food consumption, the IoM’s expert panel recommends that an effort be made to educate girls and women of child-bearing age concerning the health protective value of decreasing the quantity of animal fat foods which they consume.

Cancer Action NY has published a book entitled “Cancer Prevention”, the second edition of which includes the Interagency Working Group on Dioxins paper referred to above, the Risk Characterization chapter from the US EPA’s dioxin reassessment and the executive summary of the Institute of Medicine report on dioxins in the food supply.  We are providing copies of this book to libraries and policy makers.  In an effort to obtain the cooperation of county health departments in bringing dioxin cancer risk factor information to the public we have conferred with the heads of health departments in the following counties:  Albany, St. Lawrence, and Clinton.  The Albany County and St. Lawrence County Public Health Departments are now in the process of including public education on the dioxin risk factor among the activities of their departments.  This is being done by way of their Community Health Assessment process.  Development of outreach materials and strategies will follow.

For further information:  Donald L. Hassig, Director, Cancer Action NY; canceractionny@yahoo.com; www.canceractionny.org