Obama urged to make EPA act on dioxin

A coalition of over 100 environmental and social justice groups is urging the Obama administration to release the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decades-long study of the toxicity of dioxin and cancel a dioxin reassessment ordered in the last days of the Bush administration.

EPA has been studying dioxin since the 1980’s but under industry pressure has failed to release an assessment of the toxin.

Environmentalists and state regulators say that the EPA’s failure to issue an official assessment of dioxin has slowed regulation and cleanup of the chemical which is a potent carcinogen and endocrine system disruptor.

In the letter to the President the coalition wrote:

While panels are convened, people in communities across the country are continuing to be exposed to this highly toxic chemical. Many state regulating agencies have ignored dioxin
contamination and risks because of the lack of a final health assessment from the EPA. Dioxin
contamination is particularly high in areas with dioxin sources like incinerators, smelters, pulp
and paper mills, chemical factories or other industries that use chlorine. These dioxin sources
are predominantly located in low-income communities of color, making this a major issue of
environmental justice and racism.

A history of the delays in regulation of dioxin is available from the Center for Health, Environment and Justice here.

In Michigan dioxin from chemical manufacturing at Dow Chemical Co.’s Midland plant has spread downstream through the Tittabawasee River, the Saginaw River and into the Saginaw Bay.