March 10, 2004   Statement prepared for the Assembly Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation, Legislative Commission on Toxic Substances and Hazardous Waste & Legislative Commission on Solid Waste Management   Legislation to ban open garbage burning in NYS is most nearly equivalent - but more important than - protecting people from secondhand cigarette smoke.  Why?  Because the harm created by the dioxin-laced smoke from open garbage burning can harm not only the person burning the garbage and their family.  The smoke then drifts out of the yard to harm neighbors, New York State’s residents and those beyond by increasing the levels of dioxin in the air.   One difference between second-hand cigarette smoke and ambient levels of dioxin in the air is that the primary route of exposure is not the lungs.  Instead, dioxin’s main pathway into our bodies is food, most particularly milk, eggs, cheese and other dairy products and all meats.  Plants actually absorb dioxins from the air in minute amounts and basically accumulate an amount that is related to the amount in the air.  The more dioxins in the ambient air, the more dioxins are in plants exposed to those levels.  When farm animals consume plants, they become highly concentrated in the animals.  In other words, the ambient air levels of dioxin are largely responsible for dioxin levels in plants, which are responsible for dioxin levels in animals.  The contaminant levels of dioxins in food can be correlated to ambient air levels in the plant feeds consumed by the animals we depend on for food.   What do we have to fear from the smell of burning garbage?  The toxics in the visible smoke – the particulates – tend to land close to home.  The dioxins created by burning garbage virtually all make their way into the atmosphere.  The problem is that this seemingly individual action, when the amount of open garbage burning is summed, is contributing a measurable and reversible portion of the dioxin load to the atmosphere.   Even informed people are unaware that dioxins occur in meats and dairy products in amounts above EPA’s recommended levels of exposure.  Most people are also unaware that they and their neighbors may be inadvertently increasing their exposure by burning garbage and that they are literally part of the problem.  Farmers with burn barrels may be unaware that they could be damaging the quality of the foods they produce.  Gardeners and people lucky enough to have a few chickens are largely unaware that they may be increasing the contamination of their eggs that are otherwise so much better than those in the grocery store by burning their garbage.   Another difference between second-hand cigarette smoke and ambient levels of dioxin in the air is that you can get away from second-hand smoke.  No one can get away from dioxins in our foods.  Consequently, government action is needed to make food safer to eat.    When it comes to dioxins, the only way to make our food safer to eat is to reduce the ambient levels of dioxins in the air.  No doubt others speaking before you today will talk about other sources of dioxins.   There are many.  Open burning is a significant source that can be dramatically reduced through legislation to ban the practice.   Like quitting cigarette smoking, which has immediate benefits, a reduction in the ambient levels of dioxins in the air will result in a reduction of dioxins in plants, and, hence, the foods we eat.  The fewer dioxins created means the few dioxins that will show up in our food supply.   Our members are organic farmers, gardeners and consumers who have in common an intense interest in food quality.  Consumer groups and scientists keep track of toxics in foods.  When it comes to pesticide residues in foods, organically produced crops are almost always free of pesticides being used by conventional farmers today.  However, organically produced crops absorb dioxins and PCBs from the ambient air just like other plants, so there is little advantage to choosing organically produced foods when the contaminant is dioxins.   More people every day are connecting the purchase of locally grown agricultural products with preservation of the rural beauty of their communities.  They are learning that they must support local farms by buying their products.  More people every day are also becoming more aware of and conversant with the growing number of food safety issues that are facing agriculture.  One of these food safety issues is the inadvertent contamination of foods by dioxins.  Today, few are aware that the local practice of burning garbage in burn barrels can increase the amount of dioxin in our local animal products.  NYS cannot afford to lose the growing momentum of interest in locally produced foods.  We need the Legislature to act to protect NYS food quality.   There is also a growing interest in organically grown agricultural products.  In fact, this is the only sector of agriculture that is currently growing in the U.S.  NYS ranked third in the country for certified organic livestock in 2001, the most recent year for which the US Dept of Agriculture has comparative state data.  NYS ranked seventh in the production of certified organic vegetables that same year.  Analysts predict that food safety issues will continue to drive consumer interest in organically produced foods.  Interest in organically grown food is really an expression of interest in food safety.   As an organization that includes farmers, gardeners and consumers as members, we are straightforward about explaining food safety concerns we can address with organic farming practices and those we cannot address.  Modern science has allowed us to figure out the many sources of pollution we have created and how they make their way from one place to another.    We now find that we are eating our own garbage.  We urge you to take the initiative to change this ironic and unhealthy situation.   Respectfully submitted by Sarah Johnston, Executive Director Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, Inc.   Articles & Studies   Dioxin residues in the edible tissue of broiler chicken.  Iben C, Bohn J, Tausch H, Leibetseder J, Luf W.  J Anim Physiol Anim Nurtr (Berl). 2003.   Exposure and Human Health Reassessment of 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-Dioxin (TCDD) and Related Compounds, EPA/600/P-00/001Bb, September 2000, Draft Final Report.   Nowhere to Hide:  Persistent Toxic Chemicals in the U.S. Food Supply Pesticide Action Network North America, Commonweal, March 2001.   PCBs in the Atmosphere and their Accumulation in Foliage and Crops Edward H. Buckley, Boyce Thompson Institite for Plant Research, Cornell University Plenum Publishing Co., 1987.   Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and furan (PCDD/F) uptake by pasture.  Thomas GO, Jones JL, Jones KC. Environ Sci Technol. 2002 Jun 1;36(11):233A-234A.