If you think that the food in Griesedieck cafeteria is killing you, wait until you hear about what is in the air. SLU Hospital is dedicated to making people healthy, yet in the process it may be increasing demand for its services. It seems contrary to rational thought that a hospital would spew poisons into the air, but it seems to be happening. Medical waste incinerators are the third greatest producers of dioxins. They are the product that results from the burning of plastic and other medical wastes. People at SLU are starting to stand up to put the cap on the filth.

Take a deep breath of air and listen to this. Dioxins make kids dumber. Mothers who are exposed to greater than normal amounts of the stuff have children with lower IQs. For those of us who aren’t looking at childbirth in the near future, contemplate increased rates of diabetes and cancer. It has estrogen-like characteristics, which can warp the gender balance in local animal populations and often flows out of the stack along with mercury and lead. And these products are more dangerous once burned.

Dr. Daniel Berg, president of the St. Louis Medical Waste Incinerator Group, explained it like this: “If you swallow a lead fishing weight, it would pass through you with little effect. If you breathed in an equivalent amount of gaseous lead, you’d be dead in minutes.” Now you can exhale and reach for you gas mask.

Well now, who is this Berg? No less than one of the newest doctors working at the award-winning Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Berg convinced Washington University to stop sending its waste to the North City incinerator and to seek a safer means of disposal. Father Biondi, this would be a great way to gain in your race to wrench away Wash. U.’s dominant image.

If you are really gasping, make a run for the County. In 1990 one St. Louis County hospital announced plans to build a new trash burner, and the response was overwhelming. Not only did local residents keep the incinerator from being built, the County passed a law effectively protecting the metro frontier from any of the smokestacks. Why? Because people in the County don’t want to breathe burned trash. The only incinerators in the metro area are located in poor areas of the City of St. Louis, which is without regulating laws-at least now.

Alderman Freeman Bosley, Sr., has proposed a bill that would outlaw all incineration except that which absolutely must be burned. This would end the burning of over 99 percent of the current burned medical wastes. The board is contemplating this bill, but needs a bit of a push. The law would force institutions like this to adopt alternatives such as autoclaving, a process that steams all toxic materials from the trash and disposes of it without the release of dangerous chemicals.

This is possible because plastics and other wastes don’t naturally contain dioxins. They aren’t released until the waste is actually burned.

Technically, with the sale of the hospital came the sale of the incinerator. SLU doesn’t own it any longer, but it sure does use it. Not only is the hospital’s waste sent there, but so is everything from the rest of the University. If the University would follow the lead of Wash. U. and stop sending garbage to the incinerator, it would be the straw that would break the burners’ backs. SLU’s support of such measures would convince city leaders to support the plan. It would cost a minimal amount, and would make Midtown and University air much safer to breath.

Berg’s organization, which is trying to close down both of St. Louis’ ovens, has combined with student groups on campus to see if they can recreate the success that was found at Wash. U. The usual petitions and letters will begin floating around, and meetings calling attention to what is going on will be scheduled. I urge everyone to at least educate themselves on what is floating around our heads.

As one St. Louis University community member pointed out, “You don’t have to be a Green Party wacko to not want dioxin in the air.”

All you have to be is a living, breathing student. Sure makes Gries noodle casserole sound better doesn’t it?