On Oct. 14, a statewide ban on burning trash went into effect in New York. The ban makes it illegal to use a burn barrel or open pits as a means for incinerating trash. New York enacted a burn ban for larger municipalities in 1972, but rural towns and villages with populations under 20,000 were exempted from that regulation. In an effort to curb the amount of toxic chemicals released into our air, that is now changed. While it may seem fairly reasonable to assume that the burning of a little household garbage is essentially harmless, in actuality even the burning of clean trash, such as unpainted wood or woody yard debris and vegetation (limbs, twigs, lawn clippings leaves and weeds) can present some risk, especially to children, the elderly and people with pre-existing respiratory illnesses such as asthma. In fact, burning yard waste puts some of the same toxic and carcinogenic chemicals into the air as burning garbage does.