Currently, one of the main methods for treating household waste worldwide is incineration. This treatment method, which does not occupy land and can also generate electricity, may seem like a win-win solution, but in reality?

1: Garbage incineration can produce dioxins, and the greatest harm of dioxins is their irreversible "three carcinogenic" toxicity, namely teratogenicity, carcinogenicity, and mutagenicity. May cause fetal death, damage to organ structure, and permanent damage to organs in the early stages of development, or developmental delay or reproductive defects; It can cause a decrease in male sperm count, decrease in sperm quality, interruption of testicular development, permanent sexual dysfunction, and gender self-awareness disorders by interfering with hormone secretion in the reproductive and endocrine systems; Cause canceration deformity of female uterus, breast cancer, etc; It may also cause permanent impairments in children's immune, intellectual, and motor abilities, such as ADHD, dementia, and immune dysfunction. According to the latest report results of case reports and animal experiments, a lifetime continuous intake of 1pg/kg of 2,3,7,8-TCDD has a carcinogenic probability of up to 1/1000~1/100.

2: Dioxin like substances are currently recognized as the most toxic environmental hormone. Environmental hormones refer to external chemical substances that interfere with the normal function of hormones in the human body. They have a structure similar to endocrine hormones and can cause biological endocrine disorders, also known as environmental hormones or endocrine disruptors. Environmental hormones enter the human body or wildlife through environmental mediators and food chains, disrupting their endocrine and reproductive systems, and affecting the survival and reproduction of offspring.

3: Dioxins are a type of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) that persist and continuously accumulate in the environment. Once ingested, it is difficult to decompose or excrete the organism, and it will continuously transmit and accumulate with the food chain. Human beings are at the top of the food chain and the final gathering point of such pollution.

4: The impact of dioxins on people can be described as a 'one shot fix'. Generally, pollutants need to reach a certain dosage in order to have significant harmful effects (i.e. threshold of action), and the threshold of action of dioxins has not been studied yet. As long as the dosage is "ultra small", it may cause harm, and the damage to infants and young children is more obvious and irreversible. Another characteristic of the harm of dioxins is their long-term and hidden nature, with a long latent process before showing obvious symptoms, which may affect future generations of humans. Therefore, some scientists are even concerned whether human evolution will be terminated by such substances.

Hazardous waste incineration generates a large amount of harmful gases similar to dioxins, so it is necessary to vigorously promote waste classification and recycling to minimize the environmental damage caused by waste treatment.