|
BLUE RIDGE ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE LEAGUE
PO Box 88 ~
Glendale Springs, North Carolina 28629 ~ Phone
(336) 982-2691 ~ Fax (336) 982-2954 ~ Email:
BREDL@skybest.com
PRESS
RELEASE
Nationwide Day of Action
on Dioxin
June 9,
2000
Contact:
Denise Lee (704) 826-8116
Catherine Mitchell (704) 545-4817
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dioxin In Our Food: A
Public Health Emergency
178 Groups Call on Clinton-Gore Administration to
Adopt a Dioxin-Free Diet for Polluters.
CHARLOTTE, NC - This year, a minimum of 4,000
people in the United States will get cancer from
dioxin, at least ten new cases every day,
according to a new USEPA report. Dioxin will also
cause an unknown number of children to be born
with birth defects, suppressed immune systems and
learning disabilities. Adults will develop
diabetes, endometriosis and heart disease because
of dioxin exposure.
"Americans are getting sick from dioxin in
fish, meat, eggs and dairy products. Even breast
milk is being contaminated by this dangerous
chemical," said Janet Zeller, director of
the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League.
"This is a food poisoning crisis - a public
health emergency - that demands action from the
Administration."
The new EPA report, leaked last month to the
Washington Post, is based on more than 5,000
scientific studies on dioxin, an unintended
by-product that is created when chlorine and
chlorine-containing chemicals are manufactured
and when chlorine-containing materials are
burned. Beginning in the 1930s with the growth of
the industries that make and use chlorine, dioxin
levels in the environment rose sharply until the
1970s. According to EPA, the largest sources of
dioxin releases to air are the burning of
municipal waste, medical waste and hazardous
waste in incinerators and cement kilns.
Since the 1970s, dioxin levels in the environment
have declined. According to the new EPA report,
improvements in combustion and emission controls
on incinerators, the closing of a number of
incineration facilities, elimination of most open
burning, phase out of leaded gas, and bans on
PCBs, the herbicide 2,4,5-T, hexachlorophene and
restrictions on uses of pentachlorophenol led to
this decline.
EPA's report fails to mention a dominant factor
in the decline of dioxin levels: community
activism. For example, the popular
opposition to incineration, the largest source of
dioxin, has blocked the building of at least 191
incinerators and led to the closing of 59
operating incinerators. Before the EPA banned
2,4,5-T, many communities had won local
ordinances prohibiting its use. Community
activism has convinced many pulp and paper mills
to adopt dioxin-eliminating measures. Most
recently, groups have been successful in getting
local and state ordinances passed which will
prevent industry from creating dioxin in the
future.
"But dioxin levels are still too high for
our food to be safe." explained Lois
Gibbs, of the Virginia based Center for Health,
Environment and Justice. "EPA's best
estimate of current intake of total dioxin-like
compounds (which includes dioxins, furans and
PCBs), is 100 times the "safe" level
for cancer risk. Many people may be getting 3
times that much because of normal variations in
diet and behavior. EPA says a diet which
substitutes meat sources that are "low"
in dioxin (beef, pork, poultry) with sources that
are high in dioxin (freshwater fish) could result
in exposures elevated over three times the
mean."
"EPA Administrator Carol Browner and other
government officials are recommending that we
solve the dioxin problem by eating more fruits
and vegetables," added Janet Zeller.
"Now, eating more fruits and vegetables is
good advice. But you can't eat your way out of
the dioxin problem. Instead of counseling
individual Americans to go on a dioxin-free diet,
the Clinton Administration should be putting
dioxin-polluting industries on a strict diet
aimed at getting dioxin out of our air and water.
If we start the dioxin-free diet for polluters
now, in time, our families will be safe from
dioxin food poisoning."
Zeller points out that more bans and phase outs
of dioxin-producing practices and products are
needed. "Here in North Carolina, paper mills
must phase out their use of chlorine and chlorine
dioxide We need to move away from using chlorine
to make plastic and bleach paper. We need to
manage our waste without incineration. It isn't
necessary. There are safer ways of dealing with
it. Our government needs to adopt a policy of
zero dioxin emissions."
More information on the EPA's dioxin report and
the dioxin-free diet for polluters is available
on line at www.bredl.org
or www.chej.org
or by calling Denise Lee at (704) 826-8116.
Photos
from this Charlotte press briefing
|