The Burning Continues At Approved Storage and Waste, Edison Ave, Mount Vernon New York
Toxic Smoke Over Mount Vernon: The City That Lets Its People Breathe Poison
For years, residents of Mount Vernon, New York, have watched smoke rise from a facility many say should never have been allowed to operate near homes, schools, and playgrounds. It has long been reported that a private company has been burning medical waste inside city limits, and despite repeated complaints, city officials, including the Mayor and City Council, have done nothing to stop it.The result: a city choking under its own neglect.
A Silent Hazard Rising from the Smoke
This isn’t harmless exhaust. Medical waste is one of the most toxic forms of industrial refuse, a mixture of blood soaked bandages, used syringes, contaminated gloves, and biohazard material from hospitals and labs. When burned, it releases a lethal cocktail of dioxins, furans, mercury, lead, and fine ash particles into the air.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), dioxins are among the most toxic chemicals known to humans, linked to cancer, reproductive disorders, liver damage, immune suppression, and birth defects. Once released, these poisons don’t disappear, they drift into homes, cling to soil, contaminate water, and remain for decades.Even trace amounts are deadly. The World Health Organization warns that long term exposure to dioxins and heavy metals can damage the body at levels too low to see or smell. Yet Mount Vernon residents are breathing it in every day.
The People Downwind
Mount Vernon is one of the most densely populated cities in America. Families live shoulder to shoulder. Schools, parks, and senior housing are all within breathing distance of the facility.
A City That Looks the Other Way
Mount Vernon’s government has long been accused of turning a blind eye to public health crises, from broken sewers filling the city’s land with dangerous E Coli, collapsing infrastructure, to unregulated dumping.
This medical waste incineration is the ultimate betrayal. Complaints have been filed for years with no action. The Mayor and City Council are aware of the dangers, but they do nothing. Are they purposely trying to hurt us?
If this were Scarsdale or Bronxville, it would’ve been shut down in twenty four hours. But because it’s Mount Vernon, they let it burn.Many residents now believe the city’s silence is more than neglect, it’s complicity.
Health, Environment, and AccountabilityBurning medical waste near homes is illegal without strict emissions controls and permits. The burn stack is much too low. EPA and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) regulations demand precise combustion temperatures, filtration systems, and routine air quality testing to prevent the release of carcinogens.
But that enforcement is virtually nonexistent. If the company lacks modern scrubbers or fails to meet air quality standards, the result is exactly what residents are experiencing: poison in the air, with nobody held accountable.
Experts warn this is a slow motion public health disaster. Mount Vernon already suffers higher than average asthma and cancer rates, now the toxic smoke may be making it worse. Without independent air testing, the full scope of contamination remains unknown.
The city has an obligation under state law to protect its residents, but the are letting us suffer. If Mount Vernon officials are allowing unpermitted incineration, they are violating both state and federal environmental statutes.
An Emergency in Plain SightMount Vernon is already drowning in corruption scandals and infrastructure failure. However, the city’s poisoned air is the biggest corruption of all.
This is not a nuisance, it’s a public-health emergency.
The EPA must step in. The DEC must investigate. Mount Vernon’s leaders must finally answer one simple question:Mount Vernon Mayor and City Council, why are you forcing children, the elderly, and the rest of the Mount Vernon population to breathe poison?
Please read the links below
https://www.approvedmedwaste.com/facilities/110-edison-ave-mt-vernon-ny-10550/
https://www.met-bio.com/post/dangers-of-burning-medical-waste/
https://www.clf.org/blog/burning-medical-waste-dangers/ |
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