[CPEO-MEF] Dioxin Assessment Released

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Please excuse duplicate postings.

U.S. EPA
News Release
February 17, 2012

EPA Updates Science Assessment for Dioxins / Air emissions of dioxins  
have decreased by 90 percent since the 1980s

WASHINGTON - Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)  
finalized its non-cancer science assessment for dioxins, which was  
last reviewed in the 1980s. Dioxins are toxic chemicals that  
naturally exist in the environment and can be released into the  
environment through forest fires, backyard burning of trash, certain  
industrial activities, and residue from past commercial burning of  
waste. Today's findings show that generally, over a personâs  
lifetime, current exposure to dioxins does not pose a significant  
health risk.



Over the past two decades EPA has worked to reduce emissions from all  
of the major industrial sources of dioxins. As a result of efforts by  
EPA, state governments and industry, known and measurable air  
emissions of dioxins in the United States have been reduced by 90  
percent from 1987 levels. The largest remaining source of dioxin  
emissions is backyard burning of household trash.



Most Americans have low-level exposure to dioxins. Non-cancer effects  
of exposure to large amounts of dioxin include chloracne,  
developmental and reproductive effects, damage to the immune system,  
interference with hormones, skin rashes, skin discoloration,  
excessive body hair, and possibly mild liver damage.

...

For the entire release, see
http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/ 
48f0fa7dd51f9e9885257359003f5342/33bcba60ed25a9b1852579a700604ed7! 
OpenDocument

For more information, see
http://cfpub.epa.gov/ncea/CFM/nceaQFind.cfm?keyword=Dioxin

For the response from CHEJ, one of the groups leading the campaign  
for EPA to release the assessment, see
http://chej.org/2012/02/big-news-epa-health-report-on-dioxin-released- 
after-twenty-seven-years-of-delays/

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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