Don't build the incinerator here
Tue May 20, 2008

To the editor:

My family and I are requesting all the decision-makers to think of the health of the residents of Durham first. My wife and my daughter both have allergic and respiratory/asthma problems. The proposed incinerator will make their conditions worse. It will also threaten the health of the community and especially our children and the elderly.

No amount of toxins including mercury, dioxins and other cancer-causing emissions from incineration is safe for the public. The accumulated amounts of toxins over time will leave public health in great peril. Additionally, incineration will defy the whole purpose of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, by sending a wrong message to the public that burning our garbage is a solution. The argument of producing energy from waste and calling it green energy is a deceitful tactic by those who have a financial interest in the incineration business.

Garbage collection should be a fee-based service and consumer goods should be regulated to cut and even eliminate on over-packaging. We all must realize that polluting our environment is like an upwind spit. It will come back on our face.

We hope our decision-makers at all levels will show leadership and put the health of the community first, by saying no to incineration.

Omeed M. Neekon

Whitby