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Production of potentially hazardous respirable silica airborne particulate from the burning of sugarcane

Burning during sugarcane production, e.g. 116 Mt of waste burnt per year in Brazil, has been linked to poor health in local populations. Our finding, that sugarcane ash contains potentially toxic/carcinogenic cristobalite, is worrying as levels of burning are expected to rise with increases in production of biofuels and the use of biomass to generate heat and soil nutrients. The results of our paper have contributed to a published ‘audit’ of emissions from biomass burning, which has been widely cited, and to studies of soil nutrients, and is likely to be of continued interest to toxicologists, agriculturalists and environmental legislators.