Dioxin :: Essays Papers

Dioxin Out to Help, or Out to Hurt? Imagine yourself building a life in a neighborhood that has everything to offer: A playground for the children, a day care center, an elementary school, a hospital, and friendly people. Everything seems to be perfect until you find out that the hospital, noted for helping people overcome illness and other ailments, is in turn causing some of those health problems. This neighborhood is not so ideal anymore. You begin to ask yourself if there was something you could have done, something you should have known, but you just don't have the answers. You are not alone. Thousands of people are learning about the effects of dioxin in their neighborhoods all the time, and there is something everyone can do about it. For starters, pinpointing the source of the problem is essential. In this case, the dioxin is being emitted into the air, water, and soil by way of a hospital incinerator. However, this is not just an argument for the environment, it is an issue of morality as well. It is up to the people to take action and fight for their right to a clean, safe environment. The Cortland Memorial Hospital incinerator is a major producer of dioxin in the Cortland area, as are all hospital incinerators throughout the world (Gibbs 53). The Environmental Protection agency has estimated that roughly 53 percent of all dioxin is cause by medical waste being burned in the hospital incinerators, and most of this is unnecessary (55). Through much research and investigation, it has been discovered that much of this dioxin is coming from the improper disposal of ALL hospital waste. Pam Jenkins, a previous advocate to stop the amount of dioxin being released into the air by Cortland Hospital, shared some of her information with us about the disposal of the waste after it is generated by the hospital. She informed us that materials and products, which can be sent to the landfill, are in actuality, being burned right in the hospital incinerator. The fact that materials such as hospital bedding, IV bags, food waste, metals, plastics, and other hazardous materials a re being burned in the incinerator is affecting the neighborhoods surrounding the hospital because the smoke carries the toxins and deposits them all over. How is dioxin created in these incinerators, and how does it affect community citizens?