Revealing the Hidden Toxin of the Bottom Ashes from Open Municipal Waste Burning

Bottom ashes caused by open waste burning (OWB) contains a large amount of metal, which can harm human health when exposed directly to human or leached into the waterways. This study aims to reveal the metal in the bottom ashes and its potential health impact. Laboratory field studies which consist of replication of open burning practice and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) analysis, were used to answer the aims. It is found that the carcinogenic risks (CR) caused by arsenic (As) and cadmium (Cd) from food waste and paper burning are higher through the ingestion pathway. Besides, the hazard index (HI) shows a value of less than 1 for adults and children in all types of waste burning. However, a higher average value for HI is found in the children. This value means that children are the most vulnerable subject to the leaching of bottom ash through the waterways from OWB practices.