Dioxin Emissions Fall As Technologies, Controls Improve

A new study by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), as reported in the Washington Post, found that "most people typically are not being currently exposed to dangerous levels of dioxin and that cancer appears to result only among those who had extremely high and long-term exposure to the chemical 15 to 20 years ago." The NIOSH study cited the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) finding that the level of dioxin in human tissue has declined 75 percent over the last 25 years. The NIOSH study said that increased cancer risk was found among chemical workers exposed to 100 to 1,000 times the background level of dioxin in the environment. A 60 percent increase in cancer deaths was seen in those workers only with the highest exposure rate.

Dioxin is an unwanted toxic byproduct of industrial production and natural processes like forest fires. Dioxin is created when the common elements carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and chlorine are heated together at temperatures insufficient to prevent its formation.

Dioxin is known as a "persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic" (pbt) substance because it persists in the environment for long periods and is potentially harmful in large enough doses over long periods. ARCC supports government policies and industrial practices designed to continuously reduce dioxin and other industrial emissions.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), dioxin emissions from known sources have fallen 75 percent since 1987. Today, dioxin levels are back to where they were before World War II and the rise of the modern chemical industry. New incineration technologies that burn waste at precisely controlled temperatures are rapidly eliminating dioxin emissions. New chlorine chemistry technology virtually eliminates dioxin discharges from U.S. pulp and paper mills.

The good news is: new policies and practices are succeeding. Dioxin emissions are falling without undue impact on employment and investment in the major industries that use the products of chlorine chemistry. The U.S. chlorine production industry is an insignificant contributor of dioxin, releasing 6 grams out of a total of 3,000 grams emitted annually. Basic industries that use chlorine in their processes are more significant emitters.

EPA Will Release New Study on Dioxin

The EPA is scheduled to soon release its "Dioxin Reassessment" which will collect and analyze the most current information about dioxin and its impact. There is controversy concerning whether current dioxin levels in the environment are capable of causing harm.

Dioxin levels in human milk and fat tissue have shown a major decline since the 1980s. According to the American Chemical Society, people took in an average of 10 trillionths of a gram per kilogram of body weight daily in the late 1980s. Today, that number has fallen to between one and three trillionths. Dioxin levels will continue to decline as strict new EPA standards for municipal, hazardous and medical waste incinerators, as well as for pulp and paper mills, take effect. The new standards will reduce dioxin emissions from these sources by another 90 percent.

However, dioxin emissions from "uncontrolled" sources such as diesel vehicles, residential wood burning and landfill fires may be greater than emissions from "controlled" sources like incinerators. EPA is beginning to quantify these emissions.