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TIRES, OPEN BURNING
Citation:
Lemieux*, P M., J V. Ryan*, D DeMarini*, D. Bryant, AND B. McCarry. TIRES, OPEN BURNING. Chapter , John Wiley & Sons Incorporated, New York, NY, , 4813-4832, (1999).
Impact/Purpose:
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Description:
The chapter describes available information on the health effects from open burning of rubber tires. It concentrates on the three known sources of detailed measurements: (1) a small-scale emissions characterization study performed by the U.S. EPA in a facility designed to simulate open burning conditions, (2) a follow-on study by the EPA where the samples from study (1) were reanalyzed using mutagenicity bioassays and bioassay-directed fractionation and subsequent chemical analysis, and (3) a field sample from the largest tire fire thus far in North America, in February 1990 in Ontario, Canada. In study (1), small amounts of tire material in two size fractions, CHUNK and SHRED, were burned in batch mode, and detailed chemical analyses were performed. The larger tire pieces (CHUNK) resulted in higher burn rates, but lower emissions, than the SHRED pieces, indicating that a smoldering tire fire produces higher emissions than a raging fire. The similar chemical composition and mutagenic effects of the field and laboratory samples provide some confidence in extrapolating the laboratory results to the field study or other real-world tire fires. The results demonstrate that the open burning of scrap rubber tires produces an extremely high mutagenic emission factor, posing a potential environmental and health hazard.