Burn Baby Burn!
Or maybe not...
Residents of Splott are up in arms over plans to build a waste incinerator... right on the doorsteps of their homes.
Can you blame them? I mean, really?
Not only are they going to have this big unsightly building right where they live, but the fumes that the burnt rubbish will give off have been proven to be fatal to newborn babies.
According to www.express.co.uk: Hundreds of baby deaths a year are being linked to pollution emitted by public waste incinerators. Researchers have established a significantly higher death rate among children up to one-year-old when they live under smoke from an incinerator chimney.
There is a lower death rate for children who live out of the path of incinerator emissions. The report comes after a detailed analysis of death rates across the country.
One of the leaders of the study mentioned above, Dr Dick van Steenis, a retired GP said “The incinerators are burning all sorts of material from domestic waste to hazardous chemical and radioactive waste.
"The danger comes from the particles released into the atmosphere. They are of a size that can be easily inhaled into the lung where they lodge and cause damage to the body.”
Think about it for a second, how many of you have ever bought something like, I don't know, a new hi-fi for instance? It comes in that Styrofoam packaging to keep it safe from bumps, right?
Well some of you might not know this but you're actually not allowed to burn that stuff, simply because the fumes it gives off are toxic and can do you harm. Nor are you supposed to just dispose of it in domestic waste. Now undoubtedly there are people out there that don't follow this rule and will dispose of Styrofoam in their everyday waste. What do you think happens next?
The bin men turn up, empty your bins without knowing what they hold. The garbage truck then drives off to the incinerator at the end of the day and all of your waste, Styrofoam and all, goes up in flames releasing not only harmful toxins but also CFCs out into the atmosphere completely messing up our ozone layer.
Hurray for global warming. Not!
Okay, so maybe there is an upside. More space for buildings we actually need due to the incinerator replacing landfills, but is it worth it?
Do you cheer for the new space? Or would you rather bring up your little ones in a clean and safe environment without worrying if they'll make it past age one?
I know what I'd choose. Do YOU?
Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments boxes below.
