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By Elson Elizaga

WASH your hands, wear masks, drink lots of water. Eat fruits and vegetables, exercise regularly and have a sufficient amount of sleep. Doing these will boost your immune system.

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These are familiar pieces of advice, some coming from the Department of Health (DOH), others from my mother. On Jan. 28, 2020, the World Health Organization spokesman, Christian Lindmeier, said, “The bulk of the people who succumb to this virus is still people with underlying conditions or the elderly. People with weaker health systems.”

But they forgot one thing: Garbage burning.

The organization The Women in Europe for a Common Future, using data from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has this statement in their factsheet called “Dangerous Health Effects of Home Burning of Plastics and Waste”:

“Most people who burn their plastic domestic waste do not realize how harmful this practice is to their health and the environment. Current research indicates that the backyard-burning of waste is far more harmful to our health than previously thought. It can increase the risk of heart disease, aggravate respiratory ailments such as asthma and emphysema, and cause rashes,  nausea, or headaches, damages in the nervous system, kidney or liver, in the reproductive and development system.

“The burning of polystyrene polymers – such as foam cups, meat trays, egg containers, yogurt, and deli containers – releases styrene. Styrene gas can readily be absorbed through the skin and lungs.

“At high levels, styrene vapor can damage the eyes and mucous membranes. Long term exposure to styrene can affect the central nervous system, causing headaches, fatigue, weakness, and depression.

“Not only these people who are burning the trash are exposed to these pollutants, but also their neighbours, children, and families.”

The factsheet also mentions dioxin.

“The most dangerous emissions can be caused by burning plastics containing organochlor-based substances like PVC. When such plastics are burned, harmful quantities of dioxins, a group of highly toxic chemicals are emitted. Dioxins are the most toxic to the human organisms. They are carcinogenic and a hormone disruptor and persistent, and they accumulate in our body-fat and thus mothers give it directly to their babies via the placenta. Dioxins also settle on crops and in our waterways where they eventually wind up in our food, accumulate in our bodies and are passed on to our children.”

The EPA also states, “Dioxins are highly toxic and can cause cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, damage to the immune system, and can interfere with hormones.”

A huge amount of dioxin was used during the Vietnam War, causing fetal deformities, such as incomplete arms and legs, facial distortion, brain damage, among other ailments.

Garbage burning is illegal in the Philippines under RA 9003. Despite the signing of this law nineteen years ago, it is still a common practice. I am afraid many residents in our subdivision in Barra, Opol will die when infected with the Wuhan virus because garbage burning is a daily ritual here.

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