Stop burning trash in the yard! this is a danger to health & bull; hello healthy

Burning garbage is one of the bad habits of Indonesian society that is difficult to get rid of. This method is considered a shortcut to get rid of smelly garbage piles that can become a hotbed of disease. In fact, burning rubbish will actually create new problems for the health of the people around you. Here's the explanation.

What are the chemicals in the smoke from burning waste?

Reporting from Scientific American, about 40 percent of the waste or the equivalent of 1.1 billion tons of waste in the world is burned in the open. When you burn garbage, various chemicals contained in it will expand into the air and trigger pollution.

A number of chemicals from the smoke from burning garbage are a threat to health. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, carbon monoxide and formaldehyde (formaldehyde) are the two main combustion substances that cause most respiratory diseases.

As explained by Christine Wiedinmyer, a researcher from the National Center for Atmosperic Research, as much as 29 percent of combustion smoke contains small metal particles that can penetrate directly into the lungs. In addition, 10 percent of the pollutant content from waste contains mercury and 40 percent contains polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PHA).

Combustion fumes also contain many other invisible materials such as hydrogen chloride, hydrogen cyanide, benzene, styrene, arsenic, lead, chromium, benzo (a) pyrene, dioxins, furans, and PCBs. All these chemicals are clearly not for human consumption because they are harmful to health.

What are the dangers of littering?

When trash starts piling up in your trash can or backyard, you might think about burning it down immediately so it doesn't build up. Without realizing it, this is where you start poisoning yourself, your family, and other people in your environment.

The chemicals from the smoke from burning garbage can not only be directly inhaled by humans, but can also stick to objects around them. For example trees, plants in the garden, soil surface, and so on.

Even if the fire has been extinguished, you can still be exposed to chemicals from burning waste when you eat fruits and vegetables grown in soil that is exposed to burning ash. Be careful, children can also be exposed when they touch objects in the garden that are exposed to burning smoke.

If these chemicals are continuously inhaled by humans, they can cause coughing, shortness of breath, eye infections, headaches, and dizziness. If left untreated, this condition can increase the risk of lung disease, nervous system disorders, heart attacks, and some types of cancer.

The danger of burning rubbish doesn't stop there. Dioxin content from plastic waste has carcinogenic properties and can disrupt the hormonal system in the body. These toxins can also accumulate in body fat and are absorbed by the baby's placenta in pregnant women. So, it is very clear that burning rubbish is bad for the health of all people.

So, how do you manage waste properly and safely?

So, now you know the dangers of burning waste for the environment and health. From now on, immediately stop this bad habit and switch to a safer way of managing waste.

Here are a few simple tips that can help reduce the amount of trash without burning it.

1. Avoid waste. The more household products you buy, the more waste will be generated. Therefore, buy food ingredients or household products in moderation and choose products with the simplest packaging.
2. Reuse. Examples are turning used cans into plant pots or piggy banks, used clothes into rags or mats, and so on.
3. Recycle. Use used items that can still be used and recycled into new things that are economical and useful. For example, making baskets from a collection of coffee wrappers, newspaper waste into recycled paper, and so on.
4. Make compost. Instead of burning it, turn food scraps and leaves into compost for your plants.
5. Dispose of trash properly. Instead of burning them in a hurry, throw the trash in a landfill. In fact, now there are many places that facilitate the recycling of household plastics into more useful household products.