Trash from one household burned in a backyard barrel may release more dioxins, furans, and other chlorine-containing pollutants into the air than tons of trash burned by a municipal waste incinerator serving tens of thousands of homes, according to a new report by EPA scientists, being published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. An estimated 20 million people in rural areas of the U.S. burn trash in their backyards, according to EPA surveys. Backyard burning may emit as many dioxins and furans as all the nation’s municipal waste incinerators combined, said Dwain Winters, director of the EPA’s Dioxin Policy Project.
