Settlers Cabin Park in Oakdale, usually the site for picnics and other wholesome outdoor activities, will be inundated on Saturday with thousands of gallons of hazardous and toxic substances culled from the garages and garden sheds of homes throughout Allegheny County.

		More information The collection will be held 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday in the parking lot of the wave pool at Settler's Cabin Park, Oakdale. Cost: $2 per gallon. A map of park directions is online at www.county.allegheny.pa.us. The Pennsylvania Resource Council has information at www.prc.org or you can call 412-488-7490. The University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute Web site is www.environmentaloncology.org

Organizers expect to see lots of cans of paint, lawn care products, automotive products, including anti-freeze, and bug killers that can sicken or even kill people and pets.

Collections in the past three years have produced some very big and very lethal surprises.

"One guy dropped off a 50-pound bag of DDT, a pesticide that has not been available since the 1960s," said David Mazza, regional director of the Pittsburgh office of the Pennsylvania Resources Council, Inc., which is sponsoring the collection. "We also get cyanide and strychnine" both extremely powerful, fast-acting poisons that have not been available to the general public for decades."

In the past three years, PRC Hazardous Household Waste Collection days have netted 750,000 gallons of items that should never be thrown out in the regular garbage. The PRC expects to top one million gallons on Saturday.

That figure shouldn't be surprising. An average home can easily accumulate 100 pounds of household hazardous waste, according to both the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the PRC. Americans generate 1.6 million tons of household hazardous waste each year.

Look beyond your garage and garden shed for things to discard, Mr. Mazza advises. Your bathroom toilet bowl cleaner or kitchen oven cleaner may be toxic. And, of course, anything with words like poison, danger, corrosive, volatile and explosive can be dropped off.

Once you get rid of the nasty stuff, the PRC Web site has recipes for making safer cleaning products. (See address above.)

Partnering with the PRC for Saturday's collection (and others later this year) is the Center for Environmental Oncology of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute.

The center does research into the causes of cancer and works to educate health professionals and the general public about chemicals and other risks in the environment.

"We know that some cleaning products with some chlorinated compounds can cause some kinds of cancer," said center director Dr. Devra Davis.

"Studies in humans take a long time and are expensive," Dr. Davis said. "When we don't know for sure" that some substances may be causing some kinds of cancer, "precaution and prevention" -- like getting rid of household hazardous waste -- should be practiced.

Numbers from the Pittsburgh Poison Center show just how often people need help or treatment for toxic encounters. In 2004, the center received 5,643 calls about exposure to household cleaners and 1,544 about exposure to pesticides.

Children and pets are at particular risk. They can't read warning labels, for one thing.

The skin of infants and children is more permeable to many chemicals than adult skin, and they're shorter than adults and therefore closer to the floor, where concentrations of pollutants settle, the PRC says.

Birds can be poisoned by inhaling fumes, smoke and odors from many products, and fish are at risk when particles from aerosol products -- including flea killers used on dogs and cats -- settle in their tank water.

Dogs and cats are killed when they drink hazardous products, including anti-freeze, which has a sweet taste that appeals to them. They also can by sickened by harmful substances such as lawn chemicals when they lick their fur or their paws.

Its not just home occupants at risk from toxic substances. Many household items can cause dangerous fumes or explosions when heat or water is added, Mr. Mazza said. This puts occupants and firefighters at even greater risk during a fire.

Sanitation workers also are put at higher risk of illness or injury when hazardous substances are put out with the trash.

The cost to put on a Hazardous Household Waste Collection day is over $100,000, Mr. Mazza said. That's why people who show up are asked to pay $2 per gallon for their items .

"That will only cover about 25 percent of the cost," Mr. Mazza said. The rest is covered by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and by grants from corporations and foundations.

The cost can be cut, a bit, if people don't bring partially filled cans of latex paint. They'll be accepted, but the water-based product is not considered hazardous, and many municipalities will collect it in regular refuse pickups if the paint has dried. Adding some kitty litter to the can will speed that process.

Four more collections days will be held in other counties this year, including a June 10 collection in Cambria County at the Concurrent Technologies Corporation.