CHENNAI: Another sudden fire at the Kodungaiyur dumpyard in North Chennai on Monday forced residents of the area to leave the place as a thick blanket of smoke engulfed the area. Residents living around the dumpyard said that they noticed thick plumes of smoke emanating out of the dump at around 10 am, which was when the fire could have started. As the breeze began getting stronger, the smoke spread, engulfing the nearby residential areas leaving people gasping for breath. Residents complained of nausea and headaches. In the past few months, a series of such fires had led to similar problems for people of the area.Community Environmental Monitoring, an organisation involved in anti-pollution advocacy and research, had collected air samples during a similar fire on March 12 and had detected the presence of at least 19 toxic chemicals, including three carcinogens. They alleged that none of these emissions were currently monitored by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board.The chemicals detected during the air quality test affect every part of the human body, including the brain, the eyes, the skin, the respiratory system, the reproductive system, the central nervous system, the liver and the kidney, the organisation said. The residents, too, had been complaining about health effects for a long time but the Corporation does not seem to have taken any action to ensure that such occurrences stopped, according to Dharmesh Shah, India Coordinator, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, who has been actively campaigning against such fires at the landfill for several years. The recurrence of fires also attract contempt of court clauses, Dharmesh pointed out.At the time of going to Press, the fire was still raging.A complaint on Monday’s fire has been filed with the Corporation.
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