More News

The Frederick County school board should alert all families of school children about the 1,500-ton per-day regional incinerator that the Frederick Board of County Commissioners has approved.

Families must know that the incinerator will burn 24 hours a day, and is due to be constructed within a three-mile radius of the following schools:

Ballenger Creek Elementary and Middle; Crestwood Middle; the Earth and Space Science Center; Frederick High; Hillcrest Elementary; Lincoln Elementary; Monocacy Valley Montessori Public Charter; Orchard Grove Elementary; Parkway Elementary; Tuscarora Elementary and High; and West Frederick Middle.

Some argue that incinerators are safe because their emissions are filtered, but the gases released into the air still contain particle pollutants and dioxin, an extremely toxic, cancer-causing compound.

I know I don't want my children spending their days within three miles of an incinerator, breathing toxic compounds.

Building municipal waste incinerators within a three-mile radius of schools, homes and hospitals is against the law in some states, including Delaware. It should be the same here in Maryland.

But in the meantime, the Board of Education has a moral responsibility to alert families to the health risks children will face every day at school, with every breath they take.

Meg Egan Auderset, Frederick