RE: Release of EPA's Dioxin Reassessment
Agent Orange's Casualties Almost 30 Years After...
Negotiators Disagree On Eliminating Dioxin
Defoliant Connected To Diabetes
High-Concentration Dioxin Found in Babies' Umbilical Cord
Germany: Dioxin in human milk - still a concern?
Re: EPA Links Dioxin to Cancer
Toxic Shock

Agent Orange's Casualties Almost 30 Years After The Us Stopped Spraying The Herbicide Over South Vietnam Its Devastating Effect Continue

It's time for the afternoon meal at the Peace Village ward in Ho Chi Minh City's Tu Du Hospital. Staff members wheel carts of milk and porridge into the rooms where 58 children - ranging from newborns to teenagers - are staying.

The children suffer a range of birth defects: Some have unformed limbs, others are mentally handicapped. Two infants in the ward have grotesquely enlarged heads. A pair of teenage boys, Siamese twins separated a few years back, are two of the ward's older patients. One of the boys moves about the third-floor balcony of the ward in a wheelchair, while his brother, legless and with one arm, receives attention from a middle-aged woman staff member.

The staff at the hospital are reluctant to say what these patients have in common, but Vietnamese scientists and government officials believe the children - along with perhaps hundreds of thousands of other Vietnamese - are victims of the massive amounts of Agent Orange herbicide that US forces dumped on South Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Dr. Hoang Dinh Cau, chairman of the government-supported National Committee for Investigation of the Consequences of Chemicals Used in the Vietnam War, known as the 10-80 Committee, has studied the effects of Agent Orange on Vietnamese people for two decades. Cau is not as circumspect as the staff at Tu Du Hospital in discussing the use of the herbicide, which contained dioxin, a contaminant one Western researcher called the most toxic chemical discovered by mankind so far.

"We have recognized many kinds of birth defects associated with dioxin," he said, opening up a book with photographs of Vietnamese civilians identified as Agent Orange victims. Several of the photos depict badly deformed infants.

The US military used 19 million gallons of herbicides - including more than 11 million gallons of Agent Orange - between 1962 and 1971 during Operation Ranch Hand, which was intended to destroy forest cover used by Viet Cong guerrillas and, to a lesser extent, crops thought be useful to the insurgents or their sympathizers. US forces sprayed defoliants over an area that represented between 14 and 18 percent of South Vietnam.

A 1965 confidential memo by one Agent Orange manufacturer, Dow Chemical, described the dioxin in the herbicide as exceptionally toxic. In 1969, studies in the United States found that dioxin caused birth defects in mice and rats. Two years later, the United States halted Agent Orange spraying in South Vietnam.

In the 1970s, the dioxin-containing chemical in Agent Orange, known in scientific shorthand as 2,4,5-T, was banned in the United States and a number of other nations, as evidence mounted that linked it to disorders in lab animals.

Today, Vietnamese researchers, as well as some of their Western colleagues, believe that the more than 11 million gallons of Agent Orange that the US military introduced to South Vietnamese ecosystems created a public-health nightmare from which Vietnam has yet to recover.

Vietnamese scientists believe the dioxin contamination has caused not only birth defects, but also respiratory cancers, heart problems and diabetes. Last month, the US Air Force released a study indicating a link between Agent Orange exposure and diabetes and heart disease.

Pilot surveys conducted by Vietnamese researchers in December 1998 found that between 800,000 and 1 million Vietnamese had Agent Orange-related health problems, according to a report released last year by Dr. Le Cao Dai, executive director of the Agent Orange Victims Fund of the Vietnam Red Cross. Up to 100,000 of those affected by the herbicide suffered some form of birth defect, the surveys found.

The United States thus far has not wanted to have anything to do with research into the connection between Agent Orange spraying and health problems among Vietnamese. The US government also has questioned the accuracy and reliability of Vietnamese studies on Agent Orange.

But the United States may be on the brink of offering help to Vietnam to conduct Agent Orange research. US Defense Secretary William Cohen, who was in Vietnam last month, expressed the US's willingness to do joint research.

And last month, at a congressional hearing on federal research on the effects of Agent Orange on US veterans and their families, Joel Michalek, the Pentagon's senior principal investigator for the Ranch Hand study on Agent Orange, said he supported conducting research in Vietnam.

"Of course, if you're going to look for people who are exposed, that would be the place to go," he said in response to a question from US Representative Bernard Sanders of Vermont.

Vietnamese researchers most likely never will be able to arrive at reliable estimates of how many people died as a result of Agent Orange. Cau, however, said research conducted by the 10-80 Committee suggested that about 15 percent of those who had been born with Agent Orange-related birth defects were already dead.

"It's been almost 30 years since the United States stopped using Agent Orange. The most serious patients have already died," he said.

Caus' 10-80 Committee - named because it was founded in October 1980 - was the first Vietnamese organization to attempt systematic research into the effects of Agent Orange. Cau said the North Vietnamese government had tried studying the mysterious herbicides that the United States used as far back as 1965, but lacked the resources and knowledge to do so effectively. "The [North] Vietnamese Army never used Agent Orange, so they had no experts to study it," he said.

Vietnamese researchers now know that the dioxin from Agent Orange continues to affect Vietnamese born long after the war because it moves up the food chain, accumulating in higher concentrations as it goes.

According to Dr. Dai's report, 85 to 90 percent of the dioxin detected in the Vietnamese comes from contaminated food. After an area was sprayed, the report explains, the dioxin from Agent Orange contaminated organic matter in soil as well as river and lake mud. Animals, fish and shrimp then ingested some of the soil and mud and became contaminated. Humans, in turn, were exposed to dioxin when they consumed contaminated animal, fish or shrimp products.

Dioxin reaches human fetuses through the mother's placenta. After the mother gives birth, she can pass dioxin to her newborn through her breast milk.

Testing for dioxin is a painstaking and costly procedure, and is difficult to carry out even in nations far wealthier than Vietnam. Just one dioxin test costs between $500 and $715 in Vietnam, which can can quickly bust the budgets of Vietnamese researchers.

Since the mid-1980s, Western scientists have assisted Vietnamese researchers in conducting tests to measure dioxin levels in soil and river mud, in the food supply, and in human fat, blood and breast milk.

According to this research, people living in sprayed areas as well as the Northern Vietnamese who served in the South during the war have higher levels of dioxin in their bodies than those who have always lived in non-sprayed areas in the North. A study of human fat tissue in 1984-'85 found that dioxin levels in people who lived in sprayed areas of South Vietnam were 10 times higher than in people living in the North, and two to three times higher than in people residing in industrialized nations.

A 1988 World Health Organization study comparing levels of dioxin in breast milk worldwide found that nursing South Vietnamese women had significantly higher levels of the contaminant in their breast milk than their counterparts in Hanoi and in industrial countries. Breast milk from one heavily sprayed area had a level of dioxin eight times higher than samples taken from those in Hanoi, and almost five times higher than samples taken from women in the United States.

According to Dai's report, more recent tests have shown that dioxin levels in the environment and human tissues have decreased over time, while dioxins in commonly used foods have returned to normal.

Dai wrote in his report that areas around former US air bases remain dioxin hot spots. His concerns about base sites are predicated partly on a 1998 environmental assessment of an area around a former US Special Forces base in Aluoi province.

That research, conducted by a Canadian-based environmental consulting firm and Vietnamese researchers, constituted the first systematic environmental assessment of residual dioxins in Vietnam, according to David Levy, a scientist involved in the Vietnam study who also serves as vice president for Hatfield Consultants Ltd.

"In one area around the site of the former base, dioxins are present in duck fat and fish fat at high levels," Levy said. Similar concentrations in Canada trigger a regulatory response, such as food consumption advisories and closure of commercial fisheries.

Levy said the Hatfield research points to the need for further study of areas around former US military installations in South Vietnam. There should be carefully designed epidemiology and environmental impact studies carried out adjacent to the former US base sites where Agent Orange was handled, perimeter-sprayed, and possibly buried, he said.

Levy also supports more outside help for research on the effects of Agent Orange in Vietnam.

He said that Vietnam, with the contrast between the unsprayed North and sprayed South, provides what may be the best natural laboratory in the world to study links between exposure to the herbicide and health problems.

In terms of epidemiology, both prospective studies, similar to the US Air Force Ranch Hand study, and retrospective studies, similar to those carried out by Vietnamese medical scientists, should be done, Levy said.

Cau of Vietnam's 10-80 Committee is not too optimistic about the possibility of establishing causal links that would measure up to Western scientific standards. "A long time has already passed," he said. "Mitigation of Agent Orange's effects on human health and the environment is the goal now."

Negotiators Disagree On Eliminating Dioxins

Whether to eliminate production of dioxins and furans entirely or to do so "where feasible and practicable" remains a sticking point in negotiations on a new global treaty.

Negotiators in Bonn recently concluded the fourth of five rounds of talks on a pact that is to address 12 types of persistent organic pollutants (POPs). In Bonn, governments agreed on a goal of "ultimate elimination" of the manufacture and use of 10 intentionally produced POPs: aldrin, chlordane, DDT, dieldrin, endrin, heptachlor, hexachlorobenzene, mirex, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and toxaphene. They also agreed to allow exemptions to the ban on production and use, provided that the exemptions are reviewed periodically.

The U.S., backed by the chemical industry, wants a different treatment for POPs unintentionally produced in certain industrial processes. Dioxins and furans top the list of such chemicals, but hexachlorobenzene and PCBs would be included. The U.S. is pushing for the elimination of unintentionally produced POPs "where feasible and practicable." Also supporting this view are Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Iceland, Switzerland, Norway, Turkey, and South Korea.

Michael Walls, senior counsel for the Chemical Manufacturers Association, says, "Elimination, as a technical matter, is not possible" for POPs that are unintentional by-products.

But the European Union and some developing countries, backed by environmental advocates, oppose this plan. "The U.S. and a few other governments risk burying the treaty under a blanket of loopholes and arcane language," says Clifton Curtis, director of the World Wildlife Fund's global toxics initiative.

Another outstanding issue in the negotiations concerns financial and technical assistance to the developing world and former Soviet bloc nations so they can eliminate POPs.

Klaus Töpfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Program, says the Bonn talks "recognized that technology and funding are critical to successful implementation" of the new treaty. But industrialized and developing countries are divided on how to deliver this assistance.

Developing countries want to create an international fund dedicated to addressing POPs rather than expanding the Global Environment Facility. That fund provides money to developing and former Soviet countries for addressing environmental problems that have international implications, such as protection of stratospheric ozone. The U.S. opposes creation of a new fund for POPs, especially if it requires mandatory contributions from industrialized nations.

The final round of POPs talks will take place Dec. 4-9 in South Africa.

By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 29, 2000; Page A14

The Air Force has found a "significant and potentially meaningful" relationship between diabetes and bloodstream levels of the chemical dioxin in its ongoing study of people who worked with the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, according to a new report.

Servicemen with high dioxin levels were more likely to develop diabetes than were those with low levels, and people with the highest levels developed the disease most rapidly, according to the report.

The findings raise the possibility that diabetes may join eight other diseases officially said to be linked to Agent Orange, a dioxin-containing herbicide used widely during the war. That, in turn, would permit tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans to apply for compensation from the federal government.

The new findings are contained in a report sent to Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), chairman of the subcommittee on national security, veterans affairs and international relations of the House Committee on Government Reform. It was obtained by The Post from a government source.

For the sake of compensation, all Vietnam veterans are assumed to have had Agent Orange exposure, and do not need to prove they were in contact with the chemical to qualify for benefits. Although most diseases "presumptively" linked to Agent Orange are rare ones, the list includes lung and prostate cancer, the two most common cancers in men. Even so, fewer than 11,000 veterans receive benefits under the program.

After the Department of Veterans Affairs makes recommendations, the president decides which diseases to add to the list. The department gets advice from the National Academy of Sciences.

The data in the Air Force report come from a study that since 1982 has followed about 1,000 former servicemen who serviced or flew aircraft carrying Agent Orange. Their health is compared to a similar number of airmen who served in Vietnam, but had no defoliant exposure.

The data do not prove dioxin causes diabetes, only that there appears to be a correlation between its level in the blood and the disease. There could be non-causal reasons for the association.

For example, obesity increases a person's risk of developing adult-onset diabetes. Dioxin is stored in fat tissue. It's possible that people with diabetes are more likely to have higher levels of dioxin in their blood simply because their bodies get rid of the chemical more slowly.

Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), however, said last night be believes the evidence is strong enough to add diabetes to the list.

"What we should appreciate is that this is not some abstract academic exercise," he said. "This is real life, where people who put their lives on the line to defend this country are suffering and dying. It is absolutely immoral to continue to turn our backs on those people."

© 2000 The Washington Post Company



High-Concentration Dioxin Found in Babies' Umbilical Cord



Jiji Press Ticker Service
Tokyo, Dec. 27

High concentrations of dioxin have been found in new-born babies' umbilical cords, Japan's Environment Agency said Monday, raising fresh concern about the highly toxic chemical.

An average of 14 picograms of dioxin was found in one gram of fat from the umbilical cord, according to the agency's first research on dioxin accumulation in human and animal bodies, carried out in fiscal 1998.

The amount extracted from the umbilical cords was more than half that found in breast milk, which had a concentration reading of 22.2 picograms, according to figures released by the Health and Welfare Ministry in August.

The findings come amid strong concern about dioxin's suspected role in a variety of health problems including birth defects and cancer.

Dioxin's suspected effects on human health have in recent years sparked public outrage against operators of incinerators, the main source of the chemical. The central and local governments have also come under fire for failing to properly regulate dioxin emissions.

An agency official said that the latest reading was roughly in line with the agency's projection. He said the agency cannot confirm whether the fetus is affected by its mother's body.

Researchers found an average of 57 picograms in adults' liver, while 15,000 picograms were extracted from the muscle of a kite in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo.

The research was conducted on umbilical cords from 29 new-born babies, as well as on dead human bodies and 12 types of wildlife, including birds, raccoons and whales.

Dioxin 2000

PCDDs/PCDFs in human milk - still a matter of concern?

 

Furst, P., 2000.
Organohalogen Cpds 48:111-114.

In perhaps the most interesting presentation at Dioxin 2000, Peter Furst reported that, in Germany, dioxin levels in breast milk appear no longer to be declining. His data show dioxin levels falling by some 60% between 1989 and 1997 ... from 33.9 ppt TEQ (lipid basis) in 1989 to 12.0 ppt TEQ in 1997. However, in 1998, the average dioxin concentration was 13.6 ppt TEQ and, in 1999, 13.8 ppt TEQ. In explaining this apparent increase, Dr. Furst said that "this finding is presumably due to the relatively low number of samples analyzed in 1997. On the other hand, it can not be fully excluded, that this small increase might be due to the Brazilian citrus pulp and Belgium dioxin crisis which each led to elevated levels in specific food stuffs."

Dr. Furst noted as follows: "... the actual average daily intake of dioxins via human milk for a fully breast fed baby in most industrialized countries exceeds the corresponding value for adults by around 1-2 orders of magnitude. This relatively high exposure of babies during the breast feeding period as well as the results of some studies showing that subtle effects in babies are already associated with prenatal exposure clearly indicate that PCDDs/PCDFs are still a matter of concern and therefore justify further measures that will have to be taken to reduce dioxin emissions into the environment."

 

Re: LEAKED EPA STUDY ON DIOXIN DANGERS!

(Bemidji, Minnesota) The Indigenous Environmental Network's (IEN) Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) Project today reiterated its call for an end to unnecessary incineration of medical waste and the need for a phase-out of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in medical products in response to the Environmental Protection Agency's characterization of dioxin as a human carcinogen. The American Indian/Alaska Native environmental justice organization reiterated this call as part of a broader HCWA national and international coalition of over 260 organizations.

"American Indians and Alaska Native communities with land-based cultures have been experiencing adverse effects from dioxin poisoning in our food web. This leaked EPA report confirms our suspicion that our high rate of cancer deaths could be related to dioxin poisoning and other related toxics that bioaccumulate in the environment," said Bob Shimek, IEN HCWH organizer.

"The dioxin report dramatically confirms society's need to phase out PVC plastics as a major source of dioxin, as well as medical waste and solid waste incineration and the chlorine bleaching of paper," said Gary Cohen, national co-coordinator for HCWH. "We urge the immediate release of this report to the public, so that we can get on with the business of eliminating sources of dioxin."

Dioxin is produced when chlorine-containing products such as PVC intravenous bags are manufactured or are burned in medical waste incinerators. Medical waste incinerators have been identified as the third largest source of airborne dioxin in the U.S. In addition to causing cancer, dioxin has been associated within fertility, birth defects, learning disabilities and hormonal abnormalities.

"Dioxin does not need to be a by-product of health care," said Charlotte Brody, RN, national co-coordinator for HCWH. "Hospitals can use non-PVC medical products and choose alternative waste treatment methods to provide quality, cost-effective care for their patients." "The Indian Health Service, as the lead federal agency that provides health care in Indian country must implement policy to use non-PVC products in IHS hospitals. Our tribally operated medical facilities must follow suit as well," said Bob Shimek, who has had meetings with tribal environmental staff, communities and IHS on these issues.

Numerous public health groups and other community-based organizattions have called for a phase out of PVC medical products because of dioxin emissions that occur during the manufacture and disposal of such products, including the American Public Health Association, the American Nurses Association, the International Society of Doctors for the Environment, Illinois State Medical Society, the Minnesota Medical Association and the United Methodist Church. IEN recently obtained support from the National Indian Health Board, a tribal membership organization, for phase out and elimination of dioxin emissions.

The Indigenous Environmental Network is a member of the Health Care Without Harm Campaign which is an international coalition of more than 260 organizations working to transform the health care industry so it is no longer a source of environmental harm. HCWH was founded in 1996 to address dioxin emissions from medical waste incineration and the profound irony that the very place people go to be healed could play a primary role in causing illness.

To learn more about HCWH, visit http://www.noharm.org/.

By Cindy Skrzycki and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, May 17, 2000; Page A01

The Clinton administration is preparing to dramatically raise its estimate of health threats from dioxin, citing new evidence of cancer risk from exposure to the toxic chemical compound.

A draft of a long-awaited report by the Environmental Protection Agency concludes for the first time that dioxin is a "human carcinogen." The report notes that emissions of dioxin have plummeted from their peak levels in the 1970s but still may pose a significant cancer threat to some people who ingest the chemical through foods in a normal diet.

Dioxin comes from both natural and industrial sources, such as medical and municipal waste incineration and paper-pulp production. The chemical enters the food chain when animals eat contaminated plants. Dioxin then accumulates in the fat of mammals and fish. It has been linked to several cancers in humans, including lymphomas and lung cancer.

For a small segment of the population who eat large amounts of fatty foods, such as meats and dairy products that are relatively high in dioxins, the odds of developing cancer could be as high as 1 in 100, the report says. That estimate places the risk 10 times as high as the EPA's previous projections.

Exposure to dioxin occurs over a lifetime, and the danger is cumulative, the report said. Studies have found that people all over the globe have some dioxin in their bodies.

The report, obtained by The Washington Post, links low-grade exposure to dioxin to a wide array of other health problems, including changes in hormone levels as well as developmental defects in babies and children. It also concludes that children's dioxin intake is proportionally much higher than adults' because of the presence of the chemical in dairy products and even breast milk.

"It's the Darth Vader of toxic chemicals because it affects so many systems [of the body]," said Richard Clapp, a cancer epidemiologist at Boston University's School of Public Health. "The amounts are coming down, but even small amounts are harmful."

The EPA's draft assessment, if finalized in its current form, would solidify dioxin's status as one of the most potent chemical toxins known to science.

Although the risk from dioxin varies widely--and may be nearly zero for many people--the findings suggest that dioxin already contributes to a significant number of cancer deaths each year. Environmentalists, extrapolating from the EPA's risk findings, have estimated that about 100 of the roughly 1,400 cancer deaths occurring daily in the United States are attributable to dioxin.

Officials predicted yesterday that the report would stimulate many questions about the safety of the food supply. Administration officials said, however, that the higher dioxin risks should not discourage people from eating nutritious foods and following dietary guidelines emphasizing low-fat foods. The report stressed that mothers should continue to breast-feed because the benefits far outweigh the risk of dioxin exposure.

In an indication of the potentially far-reaching implications of the report, the White House has intervened in an unusual way to coordinate its release. Tort is scheduled to be released in June and will be evaluated by scientific reviewers.

It's not clear that the findings will lead to new regulations on dioxin emissions, but EPA briefing papers discussed several strategies for reducing human exposure to the chemical, including better monitoring.

The findings came as a surprise even to EPA policymakers who have tracked slowly falling levels of dioxin in the environment--the result of a series of tough new regulations on dioxin-emitting industries.

The EPA said industrial emissions of dioxins have been reduced some 80 percent between 1987 and 1995.

"We're heading in the right direction because we're seeing dioxin levels decrease," said one administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But while dioxin levels in the population are declining, "our ability to understand the risk has improved," the official said.

Dioxin came to public attention as the contaminant in Agent Orange, a controversial herbicide used by U.S. forces in Vietnam. In 1983, the EPA forced the evacuation and demolition of the entire town of Times Beach, Mo., after the discovery of dioxin contamination on city streets.

Industry scientists have long accused the EPA of overstating the threat from dioxin, and many believed the agency's review would result in a downgrading of the official risk estimate.

C.T. Kip Howlett, vice president and executive director of the Chlorine Chemistry Council, said the EPA has a conservative view of the health risks of dioxin and they are "out of sync" with the rest of the world's view on safe levels of the chemical.

Howlett said the agency "has a real problem on it's hands" in expressing apocalyptic concern about dioxin, while also stressing that the food supply is safe, breast feeding is the right thing to do and regulatory initiatives are working.

"There are a lot of things in this report that are counterintuitive to what the facts are," Howlett said.

Keith Holman, chief regulatory counsel of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said no industry wants to produce dioxin--which is an unintended by-product of combustion--"but let's make sure we have sound science before we regulate down to a zero level where it's clearly not warranted."

Environmentalists supported the EPA's findings but raised concerns that the agency would use falling dioxin levels as an excuse to delay any further tightening of regulations to control dioxins.

"They seem to be taking a triage approach, not worrying about emissions but dietary exposures of human beings," said Rick Hind of Greenpeace International's toxics program. "That suggests they can't walk and chew gun at the same time."

The agency's understanding of dioxin has improved since the agency began in-depth studies in 1991, and this installment is particularly important because it includes results of landmark human epidemiological studies from Europe and the United States.

In a briefing to EPA managers on May 10, the agency said it expected "many stakeholders to take dramatic action when the draft reassessment is released," and pressure from other interests given the "extraordinary" findings of the reassessment.

For the first time, the agency's draft report classifies the most potent form of dioxin--2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD)--as a "human carcinogen," a step above the previous ranking of "probable carcinogen."

More than 100 other dioxin-like compounds were classified as "likely" human carcinogens.

Over the past five years, the EPA has imposed regulations on major dioxin emitters, including municipal waste combustors, medical waste incinerators, hazardous waste incinerators, cement kilns that burn hazardous waste, pulp and paper operations, and sources of PCBs.

When those regulations become fully effective over the next few years, the agency expects further declines of dioxin levels.

"We still have a certain amount of dioxin circulating in the environment.

We need to focus on the idea of reducing exposure and not simply going after all sources to the environment," said one administration official.

One source likely to be targeted is uncontrolled residential waste burning, such as burning trash in back yards, particularly in rural areas, EPA briefing papers said. Such burning is "one of the largest unaddressed dioxin sources and one that could have a disproportionally large contribution to the food supply."

The agency also is discussing the possible regulation of other sources such as sludge disposal from privately owned waste-treatment facilities and the regulation of other air sources of pollution.

Sources said that there have been lengthy discussions at the EPA on how to release the report and answer questions stemming from it.

Several federal agencies have been involved in the preparation of the report and are expected to participate in the review of it. Agencies such as the Agriculture Department and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the Food Safety Council, are readying their own responses to questions about the safety of the food supply, advice on following the dietary guidelines and breast feeding.

"People were not expecting this was an issue they had to deal with," an administration official said. "Over the last eight years there have been regulations that have already cut dioxin emissions from the most likely sources."

2000 The Washington Post Company

Statement Of Lois Marie Gibbs, Executive Director, Center For Health, Environment And Justice In Response To The Washington Post's May 17, 2000 Story, "Epa Links Dioxin To Cancer"

This report shows that dioxin threatens the health of every American. Dioxin from incinerators, paper mills and polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic production is getting into our bodies through the food we eat. And the problem is not just cancer. The average levels in our bodies are very near those that damage the immune system, alter male hormone levels, and cause other changes that lead to diabetes. Lower IQ scores, decreased attention spans, and hyperactive behavior have been found in children who were exposed to these average levels of dioxin before birth.

We've been waiting for the EPA to complete this chapter for five years. Meanwhile millions of children have been born contaminated by dioxin without their parents having the information they needed to lower their exposures. Pressure from dioxin-producing industries is a major reason for this delay. But the information in the EPA report is too important to be held hostage any longer by dioxin-producing special interests.

Now we need the EPA to officially release the final version of the Dioxin Reassessment Report. Then we need government to phase out the practices and products that make dioxin. We know how to do this. There are safe alternative processes that can dispose of wastes, make paper white, and produce plastics without chlorine. But corporations won't make these changes unless elected officials enact and enforce health protections that will get tough on dioxin spewing industries.

The Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) was founded in 1981, as the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste (CCHW), by Lois Gibbs, community leader at Love Canal. CHEJ believes in environmental justice, the principle that people have the right to a clean and healthy environment regardless of their race or economic standing. The Center believes the most effective way to win environmental justice is from the bottom up through community organizing and empowerment. CHEJ seeks to help local citizens and organizations come together and take an organized, unified stand in order to hold industry and government accountable and work toward a healthy, environmentally sustainable future.

For more information on dioxin, click on Stop Dioxin Exposure at www.chej.org.
Contact: Patty Lovera, Research Associate, CHEJ, 703-237-2249 or plovera@chej.org