Epa's Dioxin Report example essay topic

Dioxin is one of the most toxic chemicals known. A report released for public comment in September 1994 by the US Environmental Protection Agency clearly describes dioxin as a serious public health threat. The public health impact of dioxin may rival the impact that DDT had on public health in the 1960's. According to the EPA report, not only does there appear to be no 'safe' level of exposure to dioxin, but levels of dioxin and dioxin-like chemicals have been found in the general US population that are 'at or near levels associated with adverse health effects. ' The EPA report confirmed that dioxin is a cancer hazard to people; that exposure to dioxin can also cause severe reproductive and developmental problems (at levels 100 times lower than those associated with its cancer causing effects); and that dioxin can cause immune system damage and interfere with regulatory hormones.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer [IARC] -- part of the World Health Organization -- announced February 14, 1997, that the most potent dioxin, 2, 3, 7, 8-TCDD, is a now considered a Class 1 carcinogen, meaning a'known human carcinogen. ' Dioxin is a general term that describes a group of hundreds of chemicals that are highly persistent in the environment. The most toxic compound is 2, 3, 7, 8 -- p-dioxin or TCDD. The toxicity of other dioxins and chemicals like PCBs that act like dioxin are measured in relation to TCDD. Dioxin is formed as an unintentional by-product of many industrial processes involving chlorine such as waste incineration, chemical and pesticide manufacturing and pulp and paper bleaching. Dioxin was the primary toxic component of Agent Orange, was found at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, NY. (web) The major sources of dioxin are in our diet.

Since dioxin is fat-soluble, it bio accumulates up the food chain and it is mainly (97.5%) found in meat and dairy products (beef, dairy products, milk, chicken, pork, fish and eggs in that order... see chart below). In fish alone, these up the food chain so that dioxin levels in fish are 100,000 times that of the surrounding environment. The most conspicuous source of dioxin pollution is from paper mills which may pollute nearby streams with wastewater. Fish living downstream from paper processing plants have been found to contain significant amounts of dioxin in their tissues. In EPA's dioxin report, they refer to dioxin as hydrophobic. This means that dioxin, when it settles on water bodies, will avoid the water and find a fish to go in to.

The same goes for other wildlife. Dioxin will find animals to go in to, working its way to the top of the food chain. Dioxin has been know to cause cancer in many different cases such as in explosion at a Hoffman-LaRoche chemical plant in Seveso, Italy, in 1976. People did not have any signs of cancer at first. So everyone said look at Seveso dioxin does not cause cancer.

Now a new study in the journal EPIDEMIOLOGY reveals that people exposed to dioxin during the Seveso explosion have begun to exhibit excessive numbers of cancer cases. Dr. Linda Birnbaum, director of environmental toxicology for U.S. EPA now says that this case is just another strike against dioxin. The area around Seveso has been divided into three zones, called A, B and R. The small A zone was most heavily contaminated, but its 724 residents were evacuated. ('Heavy' contamination means that each square yard of land contained 13 to 494 micrograms of dioxin; a microgram is a millionth of a gram and there are 28 grams in an ounce.) The B zone was less heavily contaminated but its 4824 residents were not evacuated; zone B contained 43 micrograms of dioxin per square yard of soil, or less.

The R zone was even less contaminated (average contamination being 4.3 micrograms per square yard), so its 31,647 residents were probably exposed to low levels. Another 181,579 people living beyond zone Reserve as a control group living in " non contaminated' areas. The greatest cancer increase has occurred in zone B. In zone A the numbers are small and no significant cancer increases have occurred. In zone R one kind of cancer has increased: soft tissue sarcoma. Previous studies have linked dioxin exposure to soft tissue sarcoma in humans. In zone B, among women there has been an observable increase in cancers of the gall bladder and binary tract (the system that delivers bile from the liver to the small intestine), and in cancers related to the blood-forming system (multiple myeloma and myeloid leukemia).

Among men in zone B, there were observable increases in cancers of the blood-forming system, and in one kind of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (a cancer of the lymph system called). This new study only covers the period 1976 through 1986 -- 10 years after the Seveso accident. Since most cancers take longer than 10 years to develop, the cancers reported in this study may represent only the earliest signs of more trouble to come. During routine preparation of a REPORT TO CONGRESS ON CEMENT KILNS, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has learned that cement and cement kiln dust contain dioxins and furans (both of which are powerful poisons in animals and humans). Cement is a principal component of pipe often used to distribute drinking water in many American cities. Cement kiln dust is a byproduct of cement manufacture and is routinely given or sold to farmers as a soil treatment, or is discarded into pits or is piled on the ground near cement kilns in an uncontrolled fashion.

Many U.S. soldiers came in contact with dioxin when it was used in the Vietnam War as a defoliant under the name of Agent Orange. Now many of these soldiers are showing signs of or have cancer. Many of these soldiers have passed on this dioxin poisoning to their children. Forbears, Vietnam Veterans have claimed that their exposure to Agent Orange has resulted in illness and death. The United States government and the Veterans Administration has consistently taken the position that adequate information does not exist to demonstrate a relationship with Vietnam service, Agent Orange exposure and any illness or disease. In conclusion I feel that dioxins are very harmful and not needed in society today.

I also feel that more steps need to be taken towards getting rid of dioxins and monitoring where illness related to dioxins are located. I also feel that many of the men in the Vietnam War are getting sick and dying as a result of dioxins that were used in Agent Orange. The EPA should make sure that dioxin levels are to high in any one area..