The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has struggled to create a science based document describing the exposure and disease outcomes associated with exposure to dioxins and dioxin-like compounds since the 1980s. The 2003 draft dioxin reassessment is the most recent draft of this document. Creation of this document is a preliminary step to development of federal government policies and actions that would protect the environment and public health in matters relating to: (1) dioxin pollution that exists at numerous hazardous waste sites and brownfields throughout the United States; (2) contamination of the US food supply with dioxins, and dioxin-like compounds; (3) dioxin pollution in sediments of major rivers and surface waters where dioxins were discharged in waste waters, especially in the case of paper mill discharges; and (4) the contamination of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia with large quantities of dioxins resultant from the aerial spraying of herbicides during the Vietnam War.
During the Summer of 2010, the EPA conducted two meetings of its Science Advisory Board Dioxin Review Panel , so as to move forward with finalization of the May 2010 draft report titled, âEPAâs Reanalysis of Key Issues of Dioxin Toxicity and Response to NAS Commentsâ. The Dioxin Review Panel is slated to meet again in October. Corporate consultants have raised a plethora of scientific issues to delay finalization of the above named report and by so doing delay finalization of the dioxin reassessment itself.
Dr. Peter deFur, senior scientist and founder of Environmental Stewardship Concepts, answers questions about this federal government activity that can only be described as a terrible failure to use science to protect the environment and the public health. This government failure is caused by the large amount of influence that corporations have over the federal government. Many people and animals have been exposed to dioxins at levels that have significantly contributed to cancers that they have subsequently developed as a direct result of this failure. The federal, state and county public health agencies are all waiting on EPA to set dioxin policy after it finalizes the draft dioxin reassessment. While they wait they remain silent about the dioxin exposure problems that people around the world and across America face every day. Thus, large numbers of people make no efforts to reduce their dioxin exposure and the dioxin exposure of their pets. The governmental failure to use science to prevent cancer in the case of dioxin exposure will eventually come to be recognized as one of the most egregious outcomes of corporate domination of the government of the United States of America. Knowing the facts of dioxin, cancer and money will motivate many future revolutionaries.
Cool Cancer Action Network Director and Producer, Don Hassig
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