Lebanese burn rubber tires as protest, meanwhile the public risks greater chances of cancer
The Daily Star has released a recent on how tire burning is the preferred manifestation of anger and frustration for Lebanese protesters. After each of the recent incidents in Lebanon tire burning took place, during the civil war burning tires were used as makeshift checkpoints, the death of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel-Nasser in the 1970s was mourned by burning tires, in May 2008 Hezbollah Future Movement fighters turned West Beirut into a battle field by burning tires, and when Lebanon’s public transportation sector held a nationwide strike last month: tires were burned. These are just some examples.
As well as releasing a high concentration of dangerous metal particles such as zinc, mercury, lead and chromium, burning tires releases toxic gases like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that are type 1A carcinogens (the highest level) and dioxin, which was recognized by EPA in 1985 as the most potent human made carcinogen that fails to break down in the environment but instead builds up in the food chain, concentrating in meat and dairy products affecting the immune systems and fertility.
Pregnant mothers are particularly at risk of passing on high levels of deadly toxins to their offspring and , depending on the weather, traces of these particles can remain in the air for one or two days.
Now, given this is not a very clever way to protest since smoke from burning tires release carcinogenic particles that affect the health of protesters and nearby neighborhoods rather than government officials sitting in their air-conditioned office (not that causing cancer to government officials is justifiable), can Lebanese protesters change their silly ways please?
Banners and megaphones are more vintage.
Image via the NY Times
Author: Linda Pappagallo
Linda's love for nature started when at the age of eight she discovered, with her dog, a magical river in the valley of a mountainous region in Lebanon. For four years Linda and her dog explored along the river, until one day she saw construction scrapers pushing rock boulders down the valley to make way for new construction sites. The rubble came crashing into the river destroying her little paradise, and her pathetic reaction was to shout at the mechanic monsters. Of course that was not enough to stop the destructive processes. As she continued to observe severe environmental degradation across the different places she lived in the Middle East and Africa, these terrible images remained impressed in her mind. However, environmental issues where not her first love. Her initial academic and career choices veered towards sustainable economic development, with particular interest in savings led microfinance schemes. Nevertheless, through experience, she soon realized a seemingly obvious but undervalued concept. While humans can somewhat defend themselves from the greed of other humans, nature cannot. Also nature, the environment, is the main “system” that humans depend on, not economics. These conclusions changed her path and she is now studying a Masters in...
Hey, you know what causes even more deat
h and suffering in Lebanon? U.S proxy warfare in the Mideast. After a half-century of duking it out for control or at least primary influence over this historically choice real estate, the masses of corporate media saturated Dumbericans, completely ignorant about Lebanon, Syria, Israel, Iran/q, etc. act like instant experts and rant in agreement with what the official news tells them to think & feel.
Linda, great article! I suspect those guilty of setting tire fires are indeed the younger crowd. If they realized that this is the equivalent of peeing in your own well, expecting to make your neighbor sick, perhaps they might creatively think of a better way to express themselves. The rest of the reasoning world looks at this behavior and just shake their collective heads in disgust.