A thread about Dioxin in air & drinking water and why we should wake up earlier to this.

Today, I met a farmer who's farm land is in a serene location, right beside a little lake. Tourists have trashed huge amount of plastic on both sides of road over there though as this is en route to a tourist location.
To 'clean' this trash every week, the farmer burns it all.

When I asked him about it, he says, "So, what should we do about the plastic then?"
And that was a valid question.
Since the plastic waste isn't picked up in these locations, their preferred option has been to burn it off.

The problem is, however, this plastic waste is being burnt right beside the lake. There's a huge risk of dioxins getting mixed up with lake water (and it is probably already happening big time).
Read about Dioxins and their impact on health here: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/dioxins-and-their-effects-on-human-health

Increasingly, even within the city and surrounding villages, trash burning has been a common practice as it often doesn't get cleaned up. You'd be seeing many instances of trash getting burnt just in #Bengaluru each day you drive to your work.

Dioxins may well be getting into our food, water and we might be breathing in loads of that each day.

While apparently activated carbon in filters may reduce the levels of dioxins, because more and more burning is happening these days, I guess most of us are getting exposed to high levels of toxins in the city and even outside now through air, and through food & water.

The next time you throw your trash on highway or on roadside, think of all the dioxins that are entering your body through food you're having, air that you're breathing and water that you get to drink.

Reduce plastic, reduce use of herbicides and pesticides that contribute significantly for the dioxin pollutants.

From the WHO page about Dioxins, "Long-term exposure is linked to impairment of the immune system, the developing nervous system, the endocrine system and reproductive functions."

And,
"Based on animal data and on human epidemiology data, TCDD was classified by IARC as a "known human carcinogen”."
which means, long term exposure invariably causes Cancer.