Big news! EPA Health Report on Dioxin Released After Twenty Seven Years of Delays

(Falls Church, VA) Today the US EPA has finally released their major report on the noncancer health effects of dioxin, which for the past twenty seven years has been delayed due to interference from the chemical industry.  Environmental and health groups across the country celebrated this important milestone.

“We applaud EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and the Obama Administration for finalizing this important health report on dioxin, one of the most toxic chemicals on the planet,” said Lois Marie Gibbs, Executive Director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ). “After twenty seven years of delays, I quite honestly never thought this report would ever see the light of day.  Today the American people won a major victory against the chemical industry, who has been working behind closed doors for decades to hide and distort the truth about the dangers of dioxin.  The science is clear: dioxin is toxic to our children’s health and development.  We strongly urge the EPA to now finish the job by finishing their review on dioxin and cancer, and to develop a comprehensive action plan to further reduce dioxin emissions and exposures.  To start, the EPA should finalize the EPA’s proposed cleanup standards for dioxin at toxic sites, which have been languishing at the White House OMB since 2010.  We call on the Obama Administration to dust off the prestigious National Academy of Sciences report on dioxin in food to explore innovative policies to reduce the levels of dioxin in the food supply.”

Dioxin is building up in our bodies as a result of the food we eat.   According to EPA over 90% of human exposure to dioxin occurs through our diet.  Dioxin is most prevalent in meat, fish, dairy, and other fatty foods.

EPA has been under enormous pressure by environmental health, environmental justice, labor, health-impacted, and Vietnam Veterans organizations to release the non-cancer health assessment in recent weeks and ever since President Obama entered office.  In January a letter was delivered to EPA Administrator Jackson signed by over 2,000 organizations and individuals.  Over the past month a broad coalition of organizations have written to EPA urging the agency to finalize this report. This includes the Breast Cancer Fund, Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ), Endometriosis Association, Environmental Defense Fund, Greenpeace, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, National Medical Association, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Sierra Club, Vietnam Veterans of America, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, Canadian Environmental Law Association, , Clean Water Action, Ecology Center, Edison Wetlands Association, Environmental Working Group, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives, Healthy Child Healthy World, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, International POPS Elimination Network (IPEN), Ironbound Community Corporation, Kentucky Environmental Foundation, the Lone Tree Council, National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Reproductive Health Technologies Project, Science & Environmental Health Network, The Endocrine Disruption Exchange, Union of Concerned Scientists, Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign, and Women’s Voices for the Earth.

In January, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Natural Resources Committee and senior member of the Energy and Commerce Committee, sent EPA a letter urging the agency to finalize this dioxin assessment.  In April, Rep. Markey and 72 members of Congress sent a letter to EPA calling on the agency to release the report.

Dioxin is a known human carcinogen.  Dioxin also causes a wide range of adverse non-cancer effects including reproductive, developmental, immunological, and endocrine effects in both animals and humans. Animal studies show that dioxin exposure is associated with endometriosis, decreased fertility, the inability to carry pregnancies to term, lowered testosterone levels, decreased sperm counts, birth defects, and learning disabilities.  In children, dioxin exposure has been associated with IQ deficits, delays in psychomotor and neurodevelopment, and altered behavior including hyperactivity. Studies in workers have found lowered testosterone levels, decreased testis size, and birth defects in offspring of Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange.

Dioxin’s effects on the immune system of the developing organism appear to be among the most sensitive endpoints studied. Animal studies show decreased immune response and increased susceptibility to infectious disease. In human studies, dioxin was associated with immune system depression and alterations in immune status leading to increased infections.  Dioxin can also disrupt the normal function of hormones—chemical messengers that the body uses for growth and regulation. Dioxin interferes with thyroid levels in infants and adults, alters glucose tolerance, and has been linked to diabetes.

In response to anticipated concerns about dioxin in food, the Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ) has prepared these top six tips for reducing exposure to dioxin in food:

1. Eat less animal fat — buy lean meats and poultry – and cut off the fat before cooking.
2. Eat fat free dairy products – or as low as you can – for dairy products such as milk, cheese, and yogurt.
3. Fish is a healthy food choice – but fish are also affected, so avoid fatty fish (such as salmon) and cut the fat off before cooking and eating.
4. Purchase food products that have been grain or grass fed.  Farm animals fed food with animal products that includes other animal’s fat increases the amount of dioxin ingested by livestock and increases the amount of dioxin that is in the consumer meat product.
5. Eat more fruits and vegetables.
6. Breast feed your babies – breast milk is still the healthiest food for your baby.

According to EPA, dioxin releases increased by 18% from 2009-2010 nationally.  Dioxin air releases increased by 10%.  Some of the top U.S. companies that reported releasing dioxin into the environment in 2010 were Dow Chemical, Missouri Chemical Works, Gerdau Ameristeel, Lehigh Southwest Cement, Formosa Plastics Corporation, Temple-Inland, Cahaba Pressure Treated Forest Products, and Clean Harbors Aragonite.  Three of these facilities make chemicals to produce polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic. Municipal waste incinerators, medical waste incinerators, landfill fires, and backyard burn barrels are some of the other top sources of dioxin in America.

For a copy of EPA’s new dioxin health report, visit http://www.epa.gov/dioxin

For a fact-sheet on the hazards of dioxin, visit http://chej.org/wp-content/uploads/Documents/Dioxin%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

For frequently asked questions about dioxin in food, visit http://chej.org/wp-content/uploads/Frequently-Asked-Questions-About-Dioxin-and-Food.pdf

For a detailed history of dioxin delays, visit: http://chej.org/wp-content/uploads/DioxinTimeframeFebruary2012.pdf

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Urgent Action! Sign our Dioxin Letter to EPA

We need your help now. For over 25 years, the EPA’s report on dioxin has been delayed time after time due to pressure by the chemical industry.  Dioxin is one of the most toxic chemicals known to science and is building up in our bodies.

The EPA is on the verge of finalizing a crucial part of their dioxin study, which they’ve pledged to do by the end of this month. Help us make sure they keep their promise!

TAKE ACTION – Sign our letter to EPA!

Dioxin is a potent cancer-causing chemical.  Almost every man, woman and child in the U.S. has potentially harmful levels of this carcinogen in their bodies.  Even babies are born pre-polluted with dioxin.EPA needs to hear from you because dioxin has been linked to health problems in children and adults including learning disabilities, endometriosis, decreased fertility, birth defects, cancer, and more.

We need your help today because the chemical industry, led by the American Chemistry Council, is doing all they can to get the EPA to back down.

We need to get thousands of people to sign our letter, which we will send to EPA next week.

We’ll make sure your voice is counted.

Yours for a toxic-free future,

Mike Schade, PVC Campaign Coordinator
Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ)

Birth Defects Rise with Razing of Mountains

Coal is frequently touted as our cheapest source of energy, the way to power America.  But a new study released in the journal Environmental Research adds one more piece of evidence that coal based energy production is costly- more specifically to our children’s health. The study, “The Association between Mountaintop Mining and Birth Defects among Live Births in Central Appalachia, 1996-2003,” carried out by Melissa Ahern¹, PhD, Michael Hendryx², PhD and colleagues reveals that communities living below mountain top mining sites are subject to far higher rates of birth defects.  Even after accounting for other common causes such as smoking, drinking, obesity and poverty, women living close to areas where mountain top removal (MTR) mining is prevalent have a 26% increased risk of having a child with a birth defect.  This rate is higher than the affects of smoking alone.

Photo: Vivian Stockman http://www.ohvec.org

The study found increased rates in six of seven types of birth defects: circulatory/respiratory, central nervous system, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal, urogenital, and ‘other’.  What was also significant about this study is that the rates were not as high in underground mining communities.  This means that sources of pollution from MTR- dust produced by explosions, contaminated water by heavy metals and chemicals used for extraction and processing of the coal- are likely culprits of birth defects. The study also looked at levels of birth defects over two time periods and found that numbers of birth defects had increased as mining continued.  The more mothers are exposed to an unhealthy environment the greater the risk for their unborn child.

These high levels of birth defects also lead to a heavy financial burden to both the individual and to the state; programs such as Medicaid are essential for maintaining health in low income mountain communities. This paper follows a series of others produced by Hendryx, Ahern and colleagues showing poorer overall health in mining communities as compared to other comparable Appalachian communities.

To many living at the foot of the mountains, an additional health concern is no surprise.  William Minton of Manchester, Kentucky cares for his daughter who suffers with severe asthma.  At six months she started to develop health problems and by the age of seven already has to manage eight medications.  Minton’s family lives just 150 yards down wind from a coal processing plant and deals with high levels of dust on a daily basis.  Minton holds a letter from his doctor verifying that the dust from the coal trucks is a main source of her frequent asthma attacks.

Maria Gunnoe of Boone County, West Virginia lives at the base of a mountain where explosives are used to extract the coal from the mountainside.  During a recent explosion one of the children in her family cried, “Do they not know we are here?” MTR impacts not only infant development, the heart and lungs but also the psychological health of those facing the disaster every day.

It is time to stop using mountain top removal for extraction of an energy source that is threatening to both life and health.  The good news is that we have the capacity to change this situation.  Cleaner, renewable sources of energy combined with energy efficiency measures can eliminate our demand for MTR coal.  Investments in energy efficiency, specifically for low income housing have garnered support from both Democrats and Republicans in Kentucky.  Studies show that improving the efficiency of a home not only improves the quality of life of the occupant, but can also prevent tons of coal from being mined and tons of soot from being released into the air.

To those facing daily disasters of shattered foundations, psychological stress, asthma attacks stimulated by overloaded coal trucks, and contaminated drinking water, the release of the birth defects paper will come as no surprise.  But to those who are not familiar with the disparate impacts of mountain top removal on coal mining communities, this paper should serve as a wake up call that our nation’s primary energy source does not come cheep.

To see an abstract of the paper visit: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0013935111001484

1. Washington State University

2. West Virginia University

Deborah Payne is the Energy and Health Coordinator for Kentucky Environmental Foundation. She has a Masters of Public Health from the University of Kentucky, focusing on environmental health and water quality.

Guess what you had for breakfast this morning?

Dioxin is the most toxic man-made substance on earth…and you have some for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

Dioxin is the most toxic man-made substance on earth...and you have some for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

Dioxin is pervasive in fish, beef, milk, poultry, pork and eggs.  Even infants get dioxin in breast milk.

Over 1,000 people have signed our dioxin letter to EPA.  Will you join them? We plan to hand deliver the letter to EPA next week!

Dioxin is a known cause of cancer. Learning disabilities, birth defects, endometriosis, and diabetes have all been linked to dioxin exposure.  Dioxin weakens the human immune system and decreases the level of the male hormone testosterone.

Dioxin impacts all of us.  Almost every man, woman and child in the U.S. have measurable levels of dioxin in their bodies.

We’re up against some of the biggest chemical companies in the world, companies like Dow Chemical that have been spewing dioxin into our communities, which ends up in our food.

Can you sign our letter to EPA? We need your help now.

Yours for a toxic-free future,

Mike Schade, PVC Campaign Coordinator
Center for Health, Environment & Justice (CHEJ)