By Stephen Lester, Science Director and Charlotte
Brody, Organizing Director, Citizens Clearinghouse for
Hazardous Waste with help from Lois Gibbs, John
Gayusky, Beverly Paigen, Christian Willauer and Barbara
Sullivan. Original drawings by Corinne Mitrakas.
Dioxin — What’s the Problem?
The EPA’s draft “reassessment” of the health effects
of dioxin estimates that the lifetime risk of getting
cancer from dioxin exposure is between one in 1,000 and
one in 10,000. Dioxin is also linked to severe
reproductive and developmental effects. Dioxin exposure
can damage the immune system, leading to increased
susceptibility to infectious diseases, and can disrupt
the function of regulatory hormones. Infertility, birth
defects, impaired child development, diabetes, and
thyroid changes are linked to dioxin exposure.
At the levels present in the bodies of most Americans,
dioxin harms the immune system, decreases testis size,
and alters glucose tolerance. At levels present in 1%
of Americans, (2,500,000 people) dioxin causes
endometriosis, decreases sperm count, and reduces
testosterone levels. Dioxin affects the level of male
and female hormones. Two recent scientific reports show
that sperm counts are decreasing and the rates of
hormonally linked cancers such as breast, testes and
prostate are increasing.
What is dioxin?
Dioxin is not the desired result of any one process,
but an unwanted by-product of many chemical,
manufacturing, and combustion processes. Any use of
chlorine in industrial processes, including
incineration, results in dioxin formation.
Dioxin is the group name for many persistent, very
toxic chemicals. The most toxic form of dioxin is
2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin or TCDD. The
toxicity of all dioxin and dioxin-like substances are
measured against TCDD. There are 75 chlorinated
dibenzo-dioxins. Seven have TCDD-like toxicity. There
are 135 chlorinated dibenzo furans. Ten have
TCDD-like toxicity. There are 209 chlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs). Thirteen have TCDD-like toxicity.
There are also brominated
dibenzo dioxins, dibenzo furans and biphenyls that have
TCDD-like toxicity.
Where does dioxin come from?
According to EPA, only 50% of dioxin sources are known.
Of these, 95% comes from combustion processes. Garbage
and medical waste incinerators are the largest
identified sources.
Incinerators — 95% of 50%
Dioxin is generated by the chlorine content in the
waste stream burned in medical and garbage
incinerators. Chlorine is present in various plastics,
mostly PVCs. When these plastics are burned, chlorine
is released, and quickly reacts with available phenol
compounds to form dioxin. The phenol compounds are
present in wood and paper products. Dioxins are
released to the air, end up in the bottom ash, and in
the fly ash captured by pollution control equipment.
When chemicals such as PCBs, chlorinated benzenes and
chlorinated phenols are burned in hazardous waste
incinerators, chlorine combines with available phenol
compounds to form dioxin.
The Missing 50%
Although EPA identified chemical manufacturing/
processing and industrial/municipal processes as major
sources of dioxin emissions, they had no data to
measure how much dioxin is released from these sources.
EPA acknowledged that the “agency lacks sufficient
information about emissions from known sources”
(emphasis added) and has asked industry to “call-in”
with information on their dioxin emissions. Forest
fires and vehicle exhaust are on the list, but known
dioxin sources such as Dow Chemical in Midland,
Michigan, Vertac in Jacksonville, Arkansas, and
Monsanto in St. Louis, Missouri are omitted.
The Missing Chemical Industry
A major but unmeasured source of dioxin is the chemical
industry — in processes that use chlorine in the
production of pesticides, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics,
detergents, solvents, and dyes. Herbicides such as
agent orange and 2,4-D are made by adding chlorine to
phenoxy compounds. Dioxin is formed as a by-product
and ends up in the formulated end-product, such as the
herbicide Agent Orange or pure PVC polymer, as well as
in the process waste streams.
The Unmeasured Pulp and Paper Industry
Another major source of dioxin emissions are pulp and
paper mills. Dioxin is formed in the pulp and paper
industry when chlorine or chlorine dioxide is used to
bleach pulp and paper. Naturally occurring phenol
compounds found in wood pulp react with chlorine to
form dioxin. This results in dioxin in paper products,
paper mill sludge, and in the wastes from these plants.
How Are People Exposed to Dioxin?
Dioxin, like DDT, does not break down easily in the
environment. Instead, it bioaccumulates. This means
that the body accumulates any dioxin to which you are
exposed. Over time, continual low
level exposures will “build up” until subtle adverse
health effects begin to occur.
Until the EPA report, most people thought they would be
exposed to dioxin only if they lived near an
incinerator, a contaminated site, a pulp and paper mill
or other direct source. Now we know this is not true.
According to EPA, 90% of human exposure occurs through
diet, with foods from animals being the predominant
pathway. Animals are exposed primarily from dioxin
emissions that settle onto soil, water and plant
surfaces. Soil deposits enter the food chain by
ingestion by grazing animals. People then ingest
dioxin through the meat, dairy products, fish and eggs
they consume. A recent study by Dr. Arnold Schecter of
the State University of New York at Binghampton found
dioxin in many food products purchased in an upstate
New York supermarket. Schecter estimated that the
average daily intake of dioxin is “at least 50 times
greater than what EPA estimates is a virtually safe
dose of dioxin.”
Who is likely to have the highest dioxin levels in
their bodies? People that eat more than two inland
fish meals a month. People who live near a dioxin
source or eat food produced near a dioxin source.
Children. Breast fed babies. Anyone who eats a lot of
meat, dairy products, or fish. Dioxin is so pervasive
that limiting further exposure of the American people
cannot be accomplished through lifestyle or dietary
changes. The only sensible way to limit further
exposure is to shut down the sources of dioxin
contamination.
How does dioxin damage us?
The EPA report is full of new information on dioxin
including information on how dioxin and dioxin-like
chemicals (PCBs, furans) damage the body. Scientists
have identified a series of steps that are necessary
for most if not all of the observed effects of dioxin
and related compounds. Once dioxin is in the body, the
molecules of dioxin (the more dioxin you are exposed to
the more dioxin molecules present in the body) “attach”
to specific receptor “sites” in cell tissue much like a
ship pulling into a loading dock at a pier. This site
is normally used by hormones and enzymes to regulate
certain activities in the body. When dioxins and
dioxin-like chemicals occupy this site instead of
hormones and enzymes, select normal cell functions
cannot be carried out. Hormone activity,
developmental/reproductive and immune functions are
especially vulnerable to disruption of receptor site
activity.
We’re Almost Full
One of the most striking findings of the report is the
significance of what past dioxin exposures may mean for
public health. The report identifies levels of dioxin
in the human body referred to as the “body burden.”
According to EPA, some adverse effects of dioxins occur
at levels slightly above average body burden levels
currently found in the population and that “as body
burdens increase within and above this range, the
probability and severity as well as the spectrum of
human non-cancer effects most likely will increase.”
This means that, as a society, we have been
accumulating dioxin and dioxin-like chemicals in our
body. We are very close to “full” when it comes to the
amount of dioxin that is known or expected to cause
adverse health effects. It will only take a small
additional exposure to “push” us over the edge and
trigger adverse health effects. For most people, any
exposure to dioxin, no matter how small, may lead to
some adverse health effects. In other words, no amount
of additional exposure to dioxin is safe.
How Do We Stop Dioxin Exposure?
No amount of additional exposure is safe. So what do we
do to stop dioxin exposure? Unlike some other societal
problems, we know what it would take to stop emitting
dioxin.
At the 2nd Citizens’ Conference on Dioxin held in St.
Louis, MO in July, 1994 activists created two demands:
1) An immediate halt to the incineration of municipal,
hazardous, medical, military and radioactive waste, and
any such wastes incinerated in cement and or aggregate
kilns, or other devices; and
2) An immediate commencement of a phase-out of the
industrial production and use of chlorinated organic
compounds (including plastic, PVC).
Greenpeace has called for a national strategy for zero
dioxin that would include these actions:
EPA should place a moratorium on new dioxin permits.
EPA should sunset existing dioxin permits.
EPA should place a moratorium on all new incinerators
and phase out the burning of chlorinated wastes at
existing incinerators.
The use of chlorine and chlorine based bleaches in the
paper industry should be eliminated.
A timetable for the rapid phase out of PVC should be
established.
So we know what must be done. We have to get industry
to place public health before private gain. And if
industry won’t do that voluntarily we have to get
government to create laws and regulations to protect
the environment and the health of the American people.
Simple, right? And we have to accomplish these tasks at
a time when the prevailing political winds are calling
for fewer regulations, less taxes and fewer
restrictions on corporate power.
We can’t effectively stop dioxin exposure without
taking on some basic issues:
Our political system is broken. The vision of a
democracy in which the people use their power to elect
representatives to protect and advance their interest
has turned into a nightmare. In this nightmare power
comes from money and the ones with the most money have
the most power.
Our movement is not as strong, as inclusive or as
united as it needs to be. The Big 10 Environmental
groups, with their ties to the President and Congress,
have tended to see grassroots people as potential
donors or postcard signers, not as essential players in
the creation of national strategies. Grassroots
activists, overwhelmed by their local battles, have not
often had the time to step back and plan proactive,
long-term strategies.
Organizing a group to win change is hard, harder than
it used to be. People are too busy, too distrustful, or
too unaccustomed to working as a group. The media adds
to this trend away from community and towards rugged
individualism by reporting too much bad news and not
reporting about efforts to make things right. Every day
we’re inundated with tragic stories about things we
can’t do anything about. Rarely does the press cover
stories about ordinary people organizing together to
improve their lives.
We can’t expect to win a campaign to stop dioxin
exposure without overcoming the difficulties of
organizing, strengthening and uniting our movement and
beginning to rebuild our democracy.
But we can do it and we must do it. Not by creating a
flashy 100 national organizations signed-on-but-just-
on-paper-coalition where local people’s involvement is
limited to writing a check or sending clever postcards
to their Members of Congress. This has to be hundreds
of local coalitions figuring out how to work together
to shut down local sources of dioxin, convince
corporations to modify their production methods, and to
create local, state and federal regulations and laws.
We Can Do It
Dioxin is a powerful national organizing issue. It is a
serious health threat to all Americans and so it is the
smokestack in everyone’s backyard. Dioxin can provide
the basis for building local coalitions of Viet Nam
Veterans, La Leche League breast feeding advocates,
farmers, indigenous people, incinerator opponents, and
victims of breast cancer and endometriosis. Organizing
around dioxin is a way to initiate a new dialogue with
the American people on “getting government off our
backs and then getting government on our side.”
The EPA Reassessment of Dioxin gives us the chance to
broaden and strengthen our groups and deepen our
involvement in our local communities. Even if your
group is deeply involved in local issues, dioxin
effects everyone, and the EPA reassessment provides
new, compelling information to share with Sunday school
classes and PTAs. Dioxin provides grassroots activists
with a way to reach new people and break through the
labels that have been given us by the media and the
corporations.
Dioxin can also be a powerful electoral issue. In the
Times Mirror September 1994 poll, The New Political
Landscape, the voting public is divided into 10
distinct political groups. Three Republican oriented
groups make up 36% of registered voters. The four
Democratic-oriented groups add up to 34%. The largest
block of swing voters, making up 19% of the electorate,
are the New Economy Independents. This group is made up
primarily of high school graduates who are
underemployed and not optimistic, under 50, 60% female
and strongly environmentalist. According to this poll,
candidates of either party need the New Economy
Independents to win a majority. If stopping dioxin
exposure can be made into a stated concern of these
strongly environmentalist voters, no candidate can win
without jumping onto our bandwagon.
What’s Already Been Done
The Campaign really began when EPA scheduled public
meetings in six cities in December, 1994 to hear
comments on the science of the health and exposure
sections of the document. With encouraging turnout
from grassroots activists in most cities, the EPA heard
more from the grassroots about dioxin than they had
bargained for.
EPA was also forced to hold three additional dioxin
public meetings in Columbus, OH, Atlanta, GA and
Seattle WA in response to the demands of the
grassroots.
Over 500 grassroots activists spoke to EPA, the media
and the public during the meetings and at rallies and
press events outside the meetings. In Columbus, OH a
crowd of over 100 packed the City Council chambers.
Thirty two speakers, mostly grassroots toxics activists
from throughout Ohio and several other Rust Belt
states, told of dioxin contamination, and the resulting
health problems, they have suffered at home. Activists
also held a rally in front of City Hall, using body
cut-outs, tombstones, and body bags to dramatize the
severe health impacts of dioxin exposure.
Comments from grassroots and environmental activists
dominated the agenda in Dallas. Over 30 people spoke,
representing groups from across Texas and four
neighboring states, who are fighting toxic waste-
burning cement kilns, medical waste incinerators,
chemical waste plants, and Agent Orange-related dioxin
contamination.
Speaking for the 800,000 member Texas PTA, Kim Phillips
told the EPA panel, “It is not acceptable to poison or
expose any child to a hazard that can be avoided. The
illness and death of a child is extremely significant
to parents, family, and community.”
In New York, Newark, Washington, Chicago, San
Francisco, Seattle and Atlanta, activists echoed the
concerns raised in Columbus and Dallas. CCHW helped in
the organizing of regional efforts to give testimony
and focus the media’s attention at the public meetings
on the dioxin report. As part of this effort, CCHW
mailed an alert about the dioxin report and the public
meetings to 25,000 individual activists and groups.
CCHW’s staff have written and distributed a series of
short articles on the EPA’s report.
EPA’s Plans
The next step for the EPA is to review the comments
submitted during the period around the public meetings.
A summary of these comments will be prepared and
evaluated by EPA’s Science Advisory Board. That will be
the final scientific review of the reassessment. EPA
watchers expect a final report on the health effects of
dioxin should be released in the fall of 1995.
The EPA’s report should lead to new federal regulations
based on the reassessment. How long that policy making
process will take depends, in part, on Congress. If the
Contract on America advocates are successful in
prohibiting all new regulations or adding elaborate
cost-benefit analysis to the regulatory process, any
new federal restrictions on dioxin may take two years
or longer.
EPA is considering holding “dioxin policy workshops”
later this year. Whether these occur, or whether EPA or
Congress acts to drastically reduce dioxin exposure, is
in the hands of grassroots environmental justice groups
across the country.
What is Our Plan?
The next two years provide a unique opportunity to
bring together conservationists, environmental justice
activists, breast cancer victims and breast feeding
advocates to influence local, state and national policy
on dioxin emissions and to change the way our nation
makes, uses and disposes of paper products, plastics
and chemicals.
The necessary platform to stop dioxin exposure has
already been written and rewritten by a variety of
national groups and coalitions. To turn any or all of
these demands into reality, CCHW believes that a
national network of local grassroots organizations must
create local bottom up, coalition-driven campaigns.
A Dioxin Roundtable to Design a National Grassroots
Campaign
CCHW will convene a Dioxin Roundtable of Citizen
Activists from around the country on the last weekend
of April in Arlington, Virginia. The goal of this
Roundtable is to design the components of a national
grassroots campaign to stop dioxin exposure. In
1986 a CCHW Solid Waste Roundtable came up with the
McToxics Campaign, a successful four year effort to
limit the use of styrofoam in the fast foods industry.
The Stop Dioxin Exposure Campaign will be focused on
creating a public policy debate on dioxin in every
American household that results in a clear demand for
protection from further dioxin exposure in time for the
1996 electoral cycle. CCHW envisions a coordinated
effort of grassroots organizations across the country
all working to educate their communities and to build
local coalitions of environmental and non-environmental
groups to publicize the links between the paper and
chemical industries, solid waste disposal practices,
health problems and dioxin exposure. This network of
activists can both focus on reducing local sources of
dioxin and influencing the EPA and Congress to create a
national dioxin policy that will encourage recycling,
stop incineration and change industrial practices to
protect the American people and their environment from
further exposure to dioxin.
A Campaign Handbook
CCHW will turn the results of the Roundtable into a
Stop Dioxin Exposure Campaign Handbook and work with
groups around the country to turn the guide into
action. This Campaign Handbook will be distributed with
a people’s guide to the science in the EPA’s 2,400 page
reassessment. But you don’t have to wait for the guide
to be published to get started.
Getting Started: The First Nine Steps in Building a
Local Stop Dioxin Exposure Coalition
1. If you’re part of a local group you can skip the
first step. If there is no group, or if your once
active group has fallen apart, dioxin can be the reason
to come together. First, get one or two people to read
this kit. Then sit down with them and make up a list of
other people who should be involved. Get a copy to each
of them, ask them to read it and be ready to talk
about it when they come to a get-together on a certain
date. You’ve got the beginnings of a group.
2. Once you have a group, take the time to have a good
discussion about dioxin. You could divide up the
meeting into the same headings that are in this guide
and have a different person take the lead on each
heading. Your group really needs to take the time to
discuss this issue in order to decide whether or not to
take a leading role in building a coalition to stop
dioxin exposure. This is a big commitment and needs the
active endorsement of your whole group.
3. Have your group brainstorm all of the possible local
organizations that have a stake in stopping dioxin
exposure. The Yellow Pages or any other source book
with lists of local organizations can help. If your
group doesn’t have enough diversity to make the best
list, get other people to help with this process.
4. Everyone in your group thinks of everyone they know
in any of these groups. An uncle? A member of their
church?
5. Prioritize your list of possible coalition members.
What groups will have to take a small step to join the
coalition? What groups will have to make a major leap?
Put the groups in order with the small step groups
first.
6. Figure out which people in your group are best to
visit the top ten possible coalition members. Get a
clear commitment from your group members on who they’re
willing to visit. Role play what you’ll say in these
visits. You are going to be asking these groups to come
to a meeting to discuss forming a local coalition to
stop dioxin exposure. You are not asking the group to
join. That will come later. Pick a date by which all
first round visits will be done. It may help to plan a
meeting date at which this first round of prospective
coalition members can get together. Put together a time
line that allows you time to visit each group at least
a few weeks before the initial coalition meeting date.
7. Hold the meeting. Have a proposed statement of
principles for the coalition. Come with proposals that
set up clear expectations of what will be expected of
each coalition participant. How will decisions be
made? Who can speak for the coalition? How will the
coalition be funded? The best meetings are those with a
clear set of questions to be answered and an
established process that lets everyone at the meeting
have a say in answering those questions. The sample
coalition statement at the back of this guide will
help you get started. At the end of the meeting you
should have an agreed upon set of operating principles
that each representative can take back to their group.
8. Find out where the sources of dioxin are in your
community. This can be the first activity of your
forming coalition. Look for incinerators, not only
large solid waste burners, but also smaller
incinerators found at hospitals, universities and
laboratories. Many communities also have cement kilns
and sewage sludge incinerators. In addition, there are
unique sources of dioxin such as pulp and paper plants,
metal refining operations (smelters) and industrial
plants that manufacture plastics, dyes and pesticides
made with chlorine.
9. Call CCHW for more information. We’ll answer your
questions, send you the Stop Dioxin Exposure Campaign
Handbook and People’s Guide to the EPA’s Dioxin
Reassessment, put you in touch with other forming
coalitions, and help out in any way we can.
10. Get ready to change the country. Shutting down the
sources of dioxin won’t be easy. Industry will say that
there just haven’t been enough studies or that the
existing studies are bad science. Coalition members
will be in conflict over strategies or funding. The
Contract with America advocates will explain that
regulation isn’t necessary. But look at what we stand
to win with a successful national bottom-up campaign.
We get less cancer, stronger immune systems, fewer
birth defects, and more people who can bear healthy
children when they’re ready to start a family. We also
get the beginnings of a rebuilt democracy based on the
coalition efforts of local people who have figured out
how to limit corporate influence and maximize public
participation.
Sample Statement of Principles
The Happy Valley Stop Dioxin Exposure Coalition is a
coalition of individuals and groups in Jefferson,
Lincoln and Roosevelt Counties committed to working
together to stop dioxin exposure locally, statewide and
nationally. To accomplish our purpose, the Happy Valley
Stop Dioxin Exposure educates our community about
dioxin and advocates for policies that will reduce this
serious health and environmental problem.
All organizations that belong to the Stop Dioxin
Exposure Coalition agree to educate their membership on
dioxin, take an active role in educating the community.
pay $50 in annual dues and participate in fundraising
and strategic activities endorsed by the coalition. At
least one member of each coalition organization is
expected to represent her/his organization at regularly
scheduled monthly meetings. Every organizational member
of the coalition has one vote.
An organization is considered a member when the
coalition is presented with a letter, signed by
officers of the organization, indicating that the
organization voted to join the coalition and pays their
dues.
Individuals are encouraged to join the coalition and
participate in all events and activities. Individual
dues are $20 per family per year. Individuals who do
not represent an organization may be elected to an
office in the coalition. A voting delegate will be
elected to represent every 50 individual members.
No activity will be undertaken by the coalition unless
sixty percent (60%) of the voting delegates present at
any regularly called meeting vote to endorse the
activity.
The Stop Dioxin Exposure Campaign may elect officers
and committee chairs at any regularly scheduled
meeting. A vote by the majority of voting delegates
present is necessary for election. Spokespeople for
the coalition may be approved in the same manner.
Nominations may be taken from the floor for all
offices.
What’s A Campaign Without Buttons and T-Shirts?
Three inch round white buttons with black and red
campaign logo are available from CCHW for $1.00 each.
For orders of 10 to 49, the price is $.75 a piece. For
orders of 50 or more the price of a button is $.50.
All cotton t-shirts are also available. These are high
quality V-neck shirts with the logo on the front and
Stop Dioxin Exposure across the back. Each t-shirt is
$12.00.
Additional copies of this start-up guide are available.
If you are a group considering building a coalition,
CCHW will send you as many as you need for the cost of
shipping and handling. Others may receive a copy for
$5.00 postage paid.
Let us know what you’re doing to stop dioxin exposure.
CCHW is prepared to link together the efforts of local
coalitions. But first we have to know that you want to
be a part of the effort. Send us your name and address
and we will put you on out Stop Dioxin Exposure mailing
list. If you have questions about dioxin or coalition
building or ideas on strategies to stop dioxin
exposure, please contact us at:
CCHW, P.O. Box 6806, Falls Church, VA 22040 (703)
237-CCHW (2249).