What Is Dioxin?
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What Is Dioxin?
Dioxin is the name generally given to a class of super-toxic chemicals,
the chlorinated dioxins
and furans, formed as a by-product of the manufacture, molding,
or burning of organic chemicals and plastics that contain chlorine. It
is the nastiest, most toxic
man-made organic chemical; its toxicity is second only to
radioactive waste. Dioxin made headlines several years ago at places
such as Love Canal, where
hundreds of families needed to abandon their homes due to dioxin
contamination, and Times Beach, Missouri, a town that was abandoned as a
result of dioxin.
Dioxin - An Unprecedented Threat
We now know that dioxin exhibits serious health effects when it reaches
as little as a few parts
per trillion in your body fat. Dioxin is a powerful hormone
disrupting chemical. By binding to a cell's hormone receptor, it
literally modifies the
functioning and genetic mechanism of the cell, causing a wide range of
effects, from cancer to reduced immunity to nervous system disorders to
miscarriages and birth
deformity. Because it literally changes the functioning of your
cells, the effects can be very obvious or very subtle. Because it
changes gene functions, it can
cause so-called genetic diseases to appear, and can interfere
with child development. There is no "threshold" dose - the tiniest
amount can cause damage, and
our bodies have no defense against it.
Unfortunately, according to the EPA, much of the population of the U.S.
is at the dose at which
there can be serious health effects. How did this happen? For
about 40 years we have seen a dramatic increase in the manufacture and
use of chlorinated organic
chemicals and plastics. For chemicals, it was insecticides and
herbicides (weed killers). For plastics, it was primarily polyvinyl
chloride (PVC). From
phonograph records to automobile seat covers to wire insulation to
shampoo bottles to handbags to house siding to plumbing pipes to
wallpaper, we are literally
surrounded by PVC. When these chemicals and plastics are
manufactured or burned, dioxin is produced as an unwanted (but
inevitable) by-product.
Dioxin had been a little-known threat for many years near factories that
produce PVC plastic or
chlorinated pesticides and herbicides, and where those
pesticides and herbicides have been heavily used, such as on farms, near
electric and railway
lines, apple orchards, paper company forests. It became better
known when Vietnam War veterans and Vietnamese civilians, exposed to
dioxin-contaminated Agent
Orange, became ill. It has been a hazard downstream of paper
mills (where chlorine bleach combines with natural organics in wood pulp
and produces dioxin).
Several towns and cities have become contaminated as a result of
chemical spills or manufacturing
emissions, some that needed to be evacuated. Love Canal
(Niagara Falls, N.Y), Seveso (Italy), Times Beach (Missouri), Pensacola
(Florida), and the entire
city of Midland, Michigan have high concentrations of dioxin.
Bizarre health effects, such as cancer, spina bifida (split spine) and
other birth defects,
autism, liver disease, endometriosis, reduced immunity, chronic
fatigue syndrome, and other nerve and blood disorders have been
reported.
But in the last 20 years we have begun to burn household and industrial
trash and medical waste in
mass-burn incinerators. The result - given that we have
disposable vinyl plastic all around us - has been a dramatic increase in
dioxin contamination
everywhere in the U.S. Dioxin, formed during burning, is carried
for hundreds of miles on tiny specks of fly-ash from the incinerators.
It settles on crops, which
then get eaten by cows, steers, pigs, and chickens. It
contaminates lakes, streams, and the ocean. Like the pesticides such as
DDT, dioxin accumulates in
the fat cells of the animals, and re-appears in meat and
milk. Dioxin is virtually indestructible in most environments, and is
excreted by the body
extremely slowly.
How To Avoid Dioxin
Do not eat beef or pork, which have some of the largest concentrations
of dioxin of all food
sources. Limit your intake of ocean fish; do not eat any freshwater
fish. Chicken has the lowest dioxin content of all meats, but is still
significant. Vegetarian
meat substitutes such as tofu, beans, and rice have essentially
no contamination.
If your family drinks milk, drink only skim milk, since dioxin is
carried in the butterfat. Avoid
all full-fat dairy products, such as butter, cheese and ice
cream. Use non-fat skim-milk products or non-dairy substitutes. If you
are female and are
considering having children, it is essential that you eat a non-dairy,
low-fat vegetarian diet for several years before you have children.
Dioxin is passed from the
woman's body to the infant through the placenta and in breastmilk,
which contains more dioxin than any other food (in relation to an
infant's body weight) for women
who consume meat and milk.[1]
Avoid all organic chemicals that have "chloro" as part of their names
(such as the wood
preservative pentachlorophenol, which is probably the most
dioxin-contaminated household chemical). Avoid chlorine bleach (sodium
hypochlorite) and products
containing it. (Use oxygen bleach instead). Use unbleached
paper products.
Do not use weed killers or insecticides that contain chlorine.
Especially avoid the chlorophenol
weed killers, such as 2,4-D, found in most fertilizer/weed
killers and used by commercial lawn services. Avoid "Permethrin" flea
sprays for pets.
Avoid household or personal products and toys made of or packaged in
polyvinyl chloride - PVC -
labeled V or #3 plastic. (For example, Beanie Babies are filled
with PVC beads, which often produce cancer-causing vinyl chloride fumes
and are often contaminated
with dioxin.) Avoid using Saran Wrap and similar "cling-type"
plastic wraps (unless they are clearly identified as non-chlorinated
plastic.).
Wash all fruits and vegetables carefully to remove chlorophenol
pesticide residue. Avoid grapes
and raisins unless they are clearly labeled as organic (grown
without pesticides).
Avoid all products which have cottonseed oil as an ingredient (such as
potato chips), since cotton
is often sprayed with chlorophenol insecticides. Do not use
soaps containing tallow (most soaps), as it is made from animal fat.
Avoid "deodorant" soaps and
deodorants containing "triclosan," a chlorophenol.
What You Can Do
The way to reduce the dioxin threat is to stop burning trash and to stop
producing PVC and other
chlorinated chemicals. If your town sends its trash to an
incinerator, tell your town officials to institute comprehensive
recycling. Write to companies
that use vinyl and ask them to use the known safe substitutes.
Ask your supermarket and office supply stores to sell Totally Chlorine
Free (TCF) products. Learn
more about the dioxin threat. Read the books Dying From Dioxin
by Lois Gibbs, and Our Stolen Future by Theo Colborn. Talk to your
friends and neighbors about
dioxin and what you can do to reduce the threat. Join a community
environmental organization, or form one if there are none in your town.
Call a state or national
organization to get help. Download a copy of a Microsoft Word
Version 6-compatible version of this document for a community
information leaflet.
Notes:
[1] For women who eat moderate amounts of meat, fish, and/or dairy in
industrialized countries,
dioxin contamination of breastmilk is 1-2 parts per trillion
dioxin. In just a few months of breastfeeding, a typical infant in the
U.S. would ingest several
lifetime doses of dioxin. Contamination among non-dairy
vegatarians is much, much lower.