I am not a expert here but I would be very concerned.

There are many toxins in plastice and burning plastice releaseses them in bad ways, but it is amazing how many people do not grasp the harm they are doing by burning many products. This article from a Time magazine will not help ease your concerns but may answer some questions you have.

Here is a link that might be useful: Toxins in plastic

"...neighbor's backyard fire..... burning plastic!
Does anyone on this forum have any idea how bad this could be?"

This forum being Organic Gardening leads me to think you'll get highly biased viewpoints with difficulty sorting wheat from chaff.

I've been cancer free three years now. The residents of this rural area have, and continue, to burn plastic despite prohibiting ordinance. My oncologist was far more concerned with my making compost; in fact forbade it throughout treatments/surgeries.

We are surrounded by items inimical to health. Correlation to personal illness isn't clearcut.

alponse, congratulations on remaining cancer free! I posted in this forum because I figured the people here are the most interested in reducing toxins. It's fascinating to me that your oncologist told you not to compost, but why?

kimmsr, thanks for that link. I used to microwave food in plastic containers and I don't do that anymore.

I'm still researching the possibilities of contaminates in my soil. It's not easy to find information on this (apart from lead): what contaminants could have been released, whether they did indeed settle on my soil, whether the plants take them up, etc.

I'm very well aware that I could be overreacting because of my diagnosis, but still think it is better to investigate than assume everything is OK.

I had a similar situation, vicki. Our neighbor was burning all of her treated kitchen cabinets as they were ripped out during a renovation. The old ones were not solid wood but that composite stuff. They smelled like a chemical factory when burning.

We live just outside City limits where the burning regulations are much more relaxed than in the City (darn it). But I called our County non-emergency fire department number and told them what was going on and they sent a truck over within 10 to put out their fire and to explain to them why they could not create toxic fumes. No garbage, no household waste, no treated lumber, no plastic, etc.

Might be worth trying where you live.

It is difficult to make a connection between many of the substances we are exposed to every day and our health and especially diseases because very few people are really looking at that and it might take a number of years for changes in our bodies to take place. We do know that many of these substances do make genetic changes in insects, fish, amphibians, etc. and that alone should tell us that we too might be afected. Many people would prefer to ignore the evidence and deny we are poisoning ourselves then to take action and stop it, unfortunately.
Why are our daughters enteriing puberty at age 8 or 9 today instead of 13 as was common just a few years ago?

Vicki, certain cancer treatments cause the body to become neutropenic and less able to fight infection, bacterial and fungal.

Compost hosts both.

I'm not trying to downplay the nastiness of burning plastic, but thought that a cancer diagnosis may make a person fearful of a great number of unknowns. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof".

Kimmsr, I agree it's difficult- maybe impossible- to make cause and effect conclusions but there are more than a few studying this with unfortunately contradictory results.

Totally agree that modern man is ignorant of long term consequence.

Early onset of female puberty in the U.S. has been attributed to better nutrition.

Here is, what I believe, is really important information for all of us, but vital information for you to have if you have cancer:

http://www.angelfire.com/az/sthurston/Killing_Cancer_Cells_with_High_pH_Therapy.html

I prayed for you this morning.

God bless you,

Felin

Burning plastic not good. Don't know enough, though, to comment on it's effects on your garden. Here's an article I found: http://www.burningissues.org/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=4348