Pulled the data from an EPA report a long time ago because I believed that here was a problem that would come back to haunt farmers in the future. It looks like nothing has changed and states are now acting. Do a Google search on “burn barrel pollution” and see what you get.

            Actually, every chemical is different - dioxins, benzopyrenes, etc. The amount released is a function of the composition of the material being burned. There is actually a standard burn barrel mix – so much cardboard, PE HDPE, PVC, etc. which is where the EPA projected numbers come from (http://burnbarrel.org/citation.html). And those numbers come from the analysis of trash. There is also a standard burn barrel “burn” (to control for temperature and residence time effects). Farm based burn barrels tend to be worse because of a higher percentage of plastics. That was the whole rationale behind the push to recycle plastic containers used for ag chemicals from a decade ago.

             For a selection of chemical emission See Table 1, National Emissions from Household Burn Barrels ttp://www.deq.state.mi.us/documents/deq-aqd-bhw.pdf). 

            If you want to see how burn barrels compare to incineration in NY state, here is one analysis (http://www.mindfully.org/Air/Ban-Burn-Barrels.htm).

            Crowbar, I don’t know of anyone that classifies CO2 (or water for that matter) as an emission since it is not a hazardous chemical per se. That is what metabolism from all living organisms produces. Yes, I know that both CO2 and water can be toxic chemicals but we are talking EPA here.  If burn barrels only produced CO2 or if only cardboard was burned, few would be worried about the issue. 

            If you want to discuss emissions of dioxins and furans from backyard burning, take a gander at the pie chart on this page (http://www.dec.ny.gov/chemical/32065.html).

          I find the hazardous emissions data a bit troubling because burn barrels don't have high stacks on them like a municipal incineratory does. That means that hazardous chemicals which o precipitate out on particulates in an area close to the burn barrel are probably present in soil at relatively high concentrations. Growing up, our burn barrel was located at the edge of the garden.