DIOXIN Information Paper

FACTS:

Dioxin emissions from incineration (an EPA regulated industry) have been reduced from 10,397 grams/year TEQ (toxic equivalents) in 1987 to 1,589 grams in 1995 (Source: EPA). New EPA regulations are projected to reduce dioxin emissions from incineration to165 grams by 2003.

EPA estimates that medical waste incinerators (MWIs) emit a total of 150 grams/year TEQ of dioxin. EPA's new MWI regulations are projected to reduce these emissions by 95 percent, down to 5-7 grams/year TEQ. Along this line, attempts to ban the production and use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC, or vinyl) medical solution bags, blood bags and tubing are dangerous and alarmist. These products have helped save countless millions of lives for decades.

The proposed alternatives to incineration would require massive capital expenditures, lifestyle changes on a huge scale, and, in the case of industrial energy, cause industries to burn other fossil fuels (mostly imported) to make up for the energy deficit. The suggestion that there is no role for waste incineration is meaningless because the proposed alternatives are not economically viable in the foreseeable future. The suggestion that natural gas is available in sufficient quantities at competitive prices to replace waste-to-energy and other fuel uses in U.S. industry is absolutely absurd.

Clearly, for municipalities, industry and medical facilities, the best route is to depend on well-run incinerators using new technology and the modification of older incinerators with new technology. Numerous studies have concluded that this is the way to go, so EPA supports the technology. A well run incinerator produces virtually no dioxin regardless of how much chlorine-containing material is burned. Incinerator ash is required to be disposed of in permitted landfills and does not represent environmental or human exposure. EPA's new rules will result in major ongoing reduction of dioxin without disrupting jobs and industrial/municipal/health care budgets.

 

2. Pulp and Paper

The EPA's new cluster rule, regulating pulp and paper plants, will virtually eliminate dioxin discharges from U.S. mills by changing them from elemental chlorine to elemental chlorine free (ECF) technology using chlorine dioxide. This EPA rule was strongly supported by the unionized workers of the U.S. pulp and paper industry because it would achieve the environmental improvement desired with a relatively smaller impact on U.S. pulp and paper jobs. The alternatives supported by environmentalists would have cost many thousands more U.S. jobs with virtually zero environmental gain according to EPA.

EPA notes that its new cluster rule will permit all dioxin-related fish advisories downstream of U.S. mills to be lifted.

Claims that market demand for totally chlorine free (TCF) paper is increasing are false. The TCF market is stagnant at 6 percent of world demand. Meanwhile, demand for ECF paper produced with chlorine dioxide has now reached 54 percent of world demand and continues to grow.

TCF mills need more trees to make the same amount of paper. TCF mills can require up to 10 percent more wood. The trade off is not worth it from an environmental perspective.

 

3. Pesticides

There are many effective pesticides that contain chlorine. Very few of the thousands of chlorine based products potentially contain trace amounts of dioxin. In the past, phenoxy herbicides and hexachlorobenzene have been found to contain dioxins at the parts per million level. Either by phasing out specific products (e.g., the herbicide 2,4,5-T and hexachlorobenzene) or by changing the manufacturing processes, worker, consumer and environmental exposure has been virtually eliminated in North America and Europe. These manufacturing changes and bans in developed countries are also causing exposures to be reduced world-wide.

 

4. PVC Recommendations

The entire ethylene dichloride/vinyl chloride monomer industry that creates polyvinyl chloride (PVC) emits about 18 grams of dioxin/year TEQ while producing over 13 billion pounds of PVC annually. This translates into roughly one-half of one percent of the approximately 3,000 grams of dioxin emitted annually.

PVC production has skyrocketed during the period when dioxin levels in the environment and human tissue have dramatically declined. Over 125,000 Americans work in U.S. PVC fabrication facilities. PVC has many vital, beneficial and economical uses in building, siding, windows, piping, medical devices, molded forms and casings, auto parts, etc.

Identifying actual PVC/chlorine substitutes is not easy in most cases. Some groups like to talk about alternative materials but finding them in commercial supply can prove difficult or impossible.

Efforts should be intensified to find ways to recycle PVC more effectively instead of calling for its elimination.

 

5. Coal Fired Power Plants

Coal contains chlorine (the 11^th most abundant element on earth). Coal is a critical, domestically-available part of the U.S. energy supply.

 

6. General Employment Information and Political Considerations

The chlorine industries provide over 300,000 high-wage U.S. manufacturing jobs and 180,000 service sector jobs. Chlorine chemistry is the building block of 85 percent of pharmaceuticals, providing 260,000 U.S. jobs. The new chlorine dioxide technology will virtually eliminate dioxin discharges from U.S. pulp and paper mills, and help preserve the competitiveness of over 600,000 U.S. pulp and paper industry jobs. Chlorine chemistry provides the building block for 60 percent of U.S. chemical production. The U.S. chemical industry provides one million U.S. jobs paying wages 33 percent higher than the industrial average.

Chlorine and chlorine chemicals are used to disinfect 98 percent of drinking water systems in the U.S. Chlorine chemistry provides disinfectants that prevent sickness. Chlorine chemistry is essential to modern agriculture, providing a safe, inexpensive and abundant supply of food. Chlorine chemistry is essential to the production of semiconductors, compact disks, other advanced electronic components, metals, paper, pharmaceuticals, auto parts and other goods affecting hundreds of thousands of jobs as well.