Re: dioxin formation in landfills

["Jon Campbell" <jon@cqs.com>]

Neil,

      Landfill fires are *huge* sources of dioxins because they have exactly
the right characteristics for dioxin formation: poor, medium-temperature
combustion, lots of PVC products burning directly, and various sources of
oxygen in the trash. Landfills should never be allowed to burn, and in the
US the EPA/state DEPs have rules about sand burial of new landfill material
each day to attempt to prevent them. Because there is so much methane and
other flammable materials, along with accelerants and even fire starting
material, sometimes it is impossible to prevent them.

Jon
----- Original Message -----
From: Neil Tangri <ntangri@essential.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list DIOXIN-L <dioxin-l@essential.org>
Sent: Monday, September 20, 1999 2:03 PM
Subject: dioxin formation in landfills


> Hi folks,
>
> A question about landfills: in many places, landfills are merely open
dumps
> without any methane collection system, so they periodically catch fire
> spontaneously and smolder for long periods of time. I was concerned about
> the possibility of dioxin formation from the PVC and other plastics that
> are dumped in these landfills, but on reflection it seems that the
> temperature would be too low for dioxin formation. Does anyone have any
> information on this?
>
> Neil
>
>