The Tompkins County EMC has worked to strengthen the Open Burning and Air Pollution Regulations in Tompkins County. Residential open burning of waste is now the major source of dioxins.

Dioxins are some of the most toxic known substances  and they're showing up in dangerous levels throughout our environment. In the past factories were to blame, though now homeowners are considered to be the major source of dioxin-based pollution largely through the burning of trash.

Where the burning of trash was once a relatively benign event, the increasingly diverse types of materials in our residential waste stream has created a scenario where homeowners burn items  like plastics in inefficient, un-scrubbed fires that burn cool and actually serve as a  vehicle for creating highly toxic dioxins.

Bans on burning any residential waste have been pursued for years and have been implemented in many US states. In the spring of 2005, efforts began locally to look at the existing Tompkins County Sanitary Code to identify new language that could be implemented towards banning the burning of residential waste.. Those regulations are now in place. Information regarding what constitutes open burning, and what you can do about it, are available  on the Environmental Health page of the Tompkins County Health Department Website (http://www.tompkins-co.org/health/eh/openburn.htm).