The House of Representatives has declared illegal the practice of “siga’’ or burning as a way of disposing garbage such as leaves or wood, especially in backyards and empty lots.
This after the House committee on ecology approved House Bill 4271 that seeks to ban traditional, small-scale community incineration, amending for the purpose Republic Act 8749, otherwise known as the Clean Air Act of 1999.
The bill, authored by Rep. Bernadette Herrera-Dy of Bagong Henerasyon party-list, also aims to increase the penalty for burning of solid wastes by amending Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.
Dy explained the act of burning trash, leaves, paper, or wood is not beneficial to the environment.
“The cultural belief that burning leaves is good for trees has no scientific basis whatsoever. The resulting smoke is a daily nuisance for all Filipinos who have to breathe the polluted air,” Herrera-Dy said.
In her sponsorship speech during the hearing presided by the committee’s senior vice chairperson Rep. Lawrence Fortun of Agusan del Norte, the lawmaker said burning even biodegradable products releases harmful pollutants and particles into the air, including carcinogens and furans.
She said the burning of treated wood releases arsenic while burning plastic and PVC (polyvinyl chloride) products release hydrogen chloride. On the other hand, incinerating painted items releases lead, she explained.
“These things we unconsciously breathe into our bodies daily by inhaling polluted air. We increase our risks for asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, reduced lung function, pulmonary cancer, pneumonia, heart disease, stroke and birth defects,” Herrera-Dy said.
She cited a study published by the World Health Organization in 2014, which stated that air pollution emerged as the single, largest environmental health risk.
“Seven million people died in 2012 due to air pollution. One in every eight deaths is caused by air pollution hazard diseases,” Herrera-Dy said.
HB 4271 defines “siga” as the “traditional small-scale method of burning of wastes resulting from cleaning the backyard such as fallen leaves, stems and other similar matters from plants and trees in the backyard where the burning is done.”
The bill proposes to amend Section 20 of RA 8749, which reads as follows: “Section 20. Ban on Incineration and Siga. Incineration, hereby defined as the burning of municipal, biomedical and hazardous waste, including “Siga”, the traditional small-scale method of burning wastes such as twigs, leaves, stems, which processes emit poisonous and toxic fumes is hereby prohibited. Provided, however, that the prohibition shall not apply to crematoria.
It provides further that the incineration of bio-medical wastes, infectious wastes and medical wastes shall be permitted only insofar as to prevent any infection or spread of diseases.
The incineration of these wastes and the underlying reasons for such incineration shall be reported to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
