Citizen testimony before Dioxin Panel

My name is Teresa Mills, Director of the Buckeye Environmental Network. I live one mile from the infamous Columbus trash burning power plant. (closed in 1994) In 1993 citizens found that the Columbus incinerator was putting out more dioxin than the whole of Germany (all sources combined), twice as much as the Netherlands, three times as much as Sweden and five times more dioxin than the US EPA had estimated for all 130 trash incinerators combined.

The City of Columbus, hired a consultant who produced an outrageous analogy to minimize our concerns about dioxin – they reported that 1 part per trillion was like a one second vacation after working 31,700 years

The Ohio Health department reported that a 1000 grams of dioxin (about one half of a Seveso accident) falling annually on our heads and surrounding areas posed no health problems. Yet a secret study done by the Ohio State University found dioxin in the placentas of women who had given birth in the surrounding area. We were not informed that this study was even being done. Someone was concerned with the finding in this study and was afraid that we would never learn of the results, one day the study just showed up on a citizen’s front porch in a plain brown envelope.

In 1994 Ohio citizens drove to Washington to meet with Senators John Glenn and Howard Metzenbaum to request that they encourage EPA to include Ohio as one of the states where EPA would hold dioxin hearing. Over 100 citizens packed city hall to testify on the dioxin reassessment. That was 16 years ago and we still wait while those responsible for this poison have held the government and the reassessment hostage. One would think that industry would realize that the more dioxin is studied the more toxic it is found to be.

We fully support the US EPA’s characterization of dioxin as a known human carcinogen. For years now Dioxin has been classified as a human carcinogen by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ National Toxicology Program.

We strongly urge you to complete the EPA’s Science Advisory Board dioxin review as this process has been delayed for far too long.

We look forward to the EPA finalizing the Dioxin Reassessment and to finally move forward in protecting the health of Americans from this carcinogen. Public Health Protection must not be replaced with Health Risk Assessment.

Enough is Enough, American’s are already full of dioxin. Please, No More Delays!