By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

AFTER the New Providence landfill was hit by two fires in a week, a local physician raised concerns about the long-term effects of its toxic fumes.

The latest blaze began on Monday last week in what Renew Bahamas believes was an act of arson.

During an appearance on Guardian Talk Radio on Friday, one physician warned that the toxic fumes could be harming people’s health.

Dr Arlington Lightbourne, owner of the Nassau-based Wellness Clinic, said: “First of all, we don’t know what’s burning. We have no idea what the immediate effect is.”

He said it could take years before Bahamians fully understand the consequences of being exposed to “potentially poisonous clouds of billowing gray smoke.”

“The average-sized person takes 24,000 to 28,000 breaths a day,” he said. “We breathe the weight of a 10-year-old child in a 24-hour period.”

“Ten-year-old children take in more air because their oxygen needs are greater than that of an adult, and their symptoms might take years to manifest,” he said.

“Lot of effects take 20 years to develop. You can be 10 today and then at 30 be diagnosed with cancer. How do you make the connection between the diagnosis with what’s happening at the dump now? Think about those people who live near the dump.”

Meanwhile, Romauld Ferreira, environmental attorney and director with Save the Bays, pushed back on the notion that the dump should be relocated.

“The dump is perfectly located in the centre of the island,” he said. “The problem is that subdivisions were allowed to be built next to the dump. If you have a dump and the government approves it (subdivision) to be built, then you will have this conflict.”

He said lack of money is the reason people in the area aren’t putting up a fight against the government for having put their subdivision so near to the dump.

“You’re dealing with everyday people who don’t have money for (law) suits,” he said. “It takes years to establish personal injury for a class action lawsuit and a lot of testing.”

“Combustion is going on so there’s a production of methane and there’s no segregation of waste so once you get a spark, you’re burning methane. Methane can be vented to stop fires or can be used as energy. The city dump is not engineered for that. The built environment is not there, hence we have these fires from time to time.”