{"id":1429,"date":"2017-10-23T23:24:11","date_gmt":"2017-10-23T21:24:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blogcielomareterra.it\/?p=1429"},"modified":"2017-10-23T23:24:11","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T21:24:11","slug":"where-theres-smoke-theres-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blogcielomareterra.it\/?p=1429","title":{"rendered":"Where there’s smoke, there’s fire\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Or else how a forest region can turn into pollutant<\/span><\/p>\n

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After a summer with awful wildfires across the coast, almost a month ago, I noticed many small fires across Tramonti. Since I come from an agricultural region of Greece, I understood that this is part of the \u201ccleaning process\u201d. But as the days were passing by the fires became even more, the smoke unbearable, the landscape suffocating and I even got breathing problems. It\u2019s been almost a month that the \u201ccleaning fires\u201d are on and it’s about time to do some research, because the situation doesn\u2019t look right.<\/p>\n

While trying to find out why local farming uses so much fire, I decided to first visit the Corpo Forestalle of Tramonti <\/strong>to\u00a0get informed about the legislation on burning agricultural waste. Apparently, there is a schedule approved by the municipality allowing\u00a0 the locals to burn their garden\u2019s waste every Tuesday and Thursday from 9.00 to 16.00<\/strong> and during the chestnut period\u00a0\u00a0every day from dawn until 10.00.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is this working? Every single person who lives in Tramonti knows that there are fires every single day, all day long. Unfortunately, there is a collection of photos and videos proving this fact. Who is responsible for controlling? The local police (polizia locale<\/strong>) seems to be the authorized body for controlling that locals follow the legislation. When the police were asked why the schedule doesn’t work, they claimed that they are understaffed and while having other cases to deal with, there is not enough time and staff to have control over the fires. What do I see? Indeed, lack of staff, but also weakness in setting priorities and having appropriate control of the territory of Tramonti.<\/p>\n

What mostly though surprised me was the ignorance of the authorities <\/strong>(corpo forestale, carabinieri, polizia locale) for the impacts of this cleaning method on public health. Chemical analysis of smoke coming from vegetal waste burning shows that contains:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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This smoke is considered a very strong pollutant<\/strong> and very dangerous for the ecosystem and the public health, because it also contains dioxins<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Dioxins are toxic linked to health problems<\/strong>, such as:<\/p>\n