BLACK SMOKE: cancer, reproductive impairments, development injuries and an increase in the risk of diabetes While some will seek for answers about the reasons WHY the fire started, HOW it continued to spread and finally reach the tires, being a human error or not, or a miscalculated deliberate action or not, while the fire was contained within hours, what we really had to worry about was the BLACK FUME. First, do you know “that there are over 2 gallons of petroleum and oil in one tire alone, numerous chemicals including chlorine, styrene, butadiene and more than 20 different heavy metals. Styrene and butadiene are both suspected of causing cancer, the extender oils contain carcinogenic benzene derivatives and the metals like lead, chromium, cadmium and mercury don’t even burn away they just get released into the atmosphere as fragment ash. Tire smoke contains higher levels of toxic heavy metals, 407% more chromium, 392% more lead and 1448% more arsenic than coal and the carbon black is a fine particulate matter produced by incomplete combustion of fossil fuels, now that’s scary. These are suspected of causing cancer, reproductive impairments, development injuries and an increase in the risk of diabetes. “emissions from an open tire fire can represent significant acute (short-term) and chronic (long-term) health hazards to firefighters and nearby residents. Depending on the length and degree of exposure, these health effects could include irritation of the skin, eyes, and mucous membranes, respiratory effects, central nervous system depression, and cancer” “Dioxin which is a byproduct of chlorine once released into the air can travel long distances before settling onto the soil, water, plants and animals, miles away from the fires source some times, where it remains and becomes absorbed. Dioxin does not break down it just accumulates in the fatty tissues of animals (and humans) that consume the contaminated vegetation, meats, chickens and dairy products. In humans these Dioxins can lead to reproductive impairments, development injuries and an increase in the risk of diabetes. The heavy metals around 20 different ones, do not break down either and so they too build up into an alarming concentration level within the soils. They reduce crop yields and eventually destroy plots of agricultural land. The side effects to human exposure to these toxins in our food chain can lead to serious health conditions. Lead poisoning destroys human nervous systems, can cause retardation, learning difficulties, bone marrow deficiencies and stunted growth in children. Zinc can cause birth defects, chromium and arsenic causes cancer. When the fire is burning we expect the smoke plume to contain hazardous substances but did you know that even when the fire is cooling down it still releases other poisons and the Benzene produced in this process once inhaled, ingested or touched will lead to symptoms such as dizziness, euphoria, giddiness, headache, nausea, weakness, drowsiness, respiratory irritation, pulmonary edema, pneumonia and skin, eyes and mucous membrane irritation. Smells like sulphure occur when tires are being burnt but it’s the odourless gas called carbon monoxide that worries me the most. When this is unknowingly inhaled it then interferes with the transfer of oxygen in human tissues and leads to CO poisoning. This can be extremely dangerous and sufferers experience nausea and dizziness but if not realized quickly enough people collapse, lapse into comas and then die. To this date, the focus was on the fire because it had to stop, but nothing was done about “the Black fume” neither during or after the Fire…yet this was the most critical element in this entire “Story” which might never get answers, because the authorities chose not to communicate and take the initiative NOT to inform people and NOT to protect them.
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 17:57:04 +0000
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